The Food Stamp Program uses an asset test (also called a resource test) to target food assistance benefits to the neediest households. This report is one of a series presenting the asset and vehicle holdings of low-income households.

FNS launched the Eat Smart. Play Hard. campaign to promote USDA’s healthy eating and physical activity messages to children ages 2–18 and their caregivers. This campaign is an FNS agency-wide initiative and represents the latest effort by FNS to meet its strategic goal of improving the nutrition of children and low-income adults while at the same time addressing the major public health issue of the increasing prevalence of obesity among our nation’s youth. 

This analysis explores patterns of permanent benefit removal in Texas, Arizona, and Wisconsin, three states where EBT is the primary method of benefit distribution, but where there are low percentages of elderly. The findings suggest that a relatively small number of food stamp participants do not access their benefits for extended periods.

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 imposed a work requirement and time limit on food stamp recipients viewed as fit to work – able-bodied adults without dependents. ABAWD participants are limited to three months of benefits in a three-year period unless they meet a work requirement. This study provides a national picture of how states implemented the ABAWD provisions and who was affected.

Over the last decade, food stamp participation rose more sharply than expected following the relatively short and mild recession in the early 1990s and fell more sharply than expected after 1994 during the sustained period of economic growth. Report language accompanying the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2001 directed the Food and Nutrition Service to study the decline in participation in the Food Stamp Program.

This report summarizes findings of the second School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study. The study provides up-to-date information on the nutritional quality of meals served in public schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.

This report is the second of two reports on the nutrition of children using findings from the analysis of the 1989-1991 and 1994-1996 panels of the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals. The key objectives of the overall study are to describe the diets of school-aged children in the United States as of the mid-1990s, examine relationships between children's participation in the school meal programs and their dietary intake, and examine changes in intake between the periods 1989-1991 and 1994-1996.