Effects Of Food Assistance And Nutrition Programs On Nutrition And Health

This report was prepared in response to a request from the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It summarizes the discussions at a February 1998 workshop convened by the Committee on National Statistics; the Board on Children, Youth, and Families; and the Food and Nutrition Board. The fiscal year 1998 (FY1998) appropriations bill for USDA gave ERS responsibility for all research and evaluation studies on USDA food assistance programs. The bill provided $18 million to fund these studies, an increase from $7 million in FY1997. ERS asked the Committee on National Statistics for assistance in identifying new areas of research and data collection and in further improving the evaluation studies of food assistance programs. By bringing together many who work on evaluation of food assistance programs, policy analysis, survey methods, nutrition, child nutrition and child development, outcome measurement, and state welfare programs, the issues presented and discussed at the workshop provided ERS with information that could be used to develop a framework for their research program.

About 1 in 5 Americans participates in at least one of USDA¿s food and nutrition assistance programs. Sound research is needed to ensure that the programs operate effectively and efficiently. Since 1998, Congress has provided funds to the USDA¿s Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program (FANRP) to study and evaluate the Nation¿s domestic food and nutrition assistance programs. FANRP has become the premier source of food and nutrition assistance research in the U.S., sponsoring over 600 publications on a wide range of topics related to food and nutrition assistance. This report, prepared at the 10-year anniversary of the FANRP program, highlights some of the key research conducted during the program¿s first decade.