SNAP is designed to reduce food insecurity – reduced food intake or disrupted eating patterns in a household due to lack of money or other resources – but data quantifying this effect is limited. The objectives of this study were to: Assess how food security and food expenditures vary with SNAP participation.

Under the Community Eligibility Provision, schools do not collect or process meal applications for free and reduced-price meals served in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. Schools must serve all meals at no cost with any costs in excess of the federal reimbursement paid from non-federal sources. 

This report is the latest in a series on SNAP participation rates, which measure the proportion of people eligible for benefits under federal income and asset rules who actually participate.  The report presents participation rates for fiscal year 2011 and revised participation rates for FY 2010 using FY 2011 methodology.  The program served 79 percent of all eligible individuals in FY 2011.

This report – part of an annual series – presents estimates of the percentage of eligible persons, by state, who participated in SNAP during an average month in FY 2011 and in the two previous fiscal years. This report also presents estimates of state participation rates for eligible “working poor” individuals (people in eligible households with earnings) over the same period.

This annual report provides details on the demographic characteristics and economic circumstances of SNAP households at both the national and the state level.  In 2012, one-person households comprised more than half the caseload (50.3 percent) and the average SNAP household benefit declined by $7 to $274. 

This report offers updated estimates of the population that met these criteria and was eligible for WIC benefits in each of the years 2000 through 2009. This report includes some new estimates not included in previous reports: (1) estimates of the number of eligibles and coverage rates by state; (2) updated estimates in U.S. territories; (3) confidence intervals; and (4) estimates of eligible children by single year of age.

This report – the latest in an annual series – presents estimates of the percentage of eligible persons, by state, who participated in SNAP during an average month in FY 2009 and in the two previous fiscal years. This report also presents estimates of state participation rates for eligible “working poor” individuals over the same period. Although SNAP provides an important support for working families, the working poor have participated at rates that are substantially below those for all eligible persons. 

WIC Participant and Program Characteristics summarizes the demographic characteristics of nationwide participants in April 2010. It includes information on participant income and nutrition risk characteristics, estimates breastfeeding initiation rates for WIC infants, and describes WIC members of migrant farm-worker families.

This report responds to the requirement of PL 110-246 to assess the effectiveness of state and local efforts to directly certify children for free school meals. Under direct certification, children are determined eligible for free school meals without the need for household applications by using data from other means-tested programs. 

The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program aims to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among students in the nation’s poorest elementary schools by providing free fresh fruits and vegetables to students outside of regular school meals. The results presented in this interim report, for the 2010-2011 school year, focus on the total quantity of fruits and vegetables consumed and total energy intake (also referred to as total caloric intake), allowing the assessment of whether any additional fruit and vegetable consumption was in addition to or in place of other foods consumed.