This is the latest in a series of annual reports providing information about the demographic and economic circumstances of households participating in SNAP at both the national and state level. In fiscal year 2014, as in prior years, nearly two-thirds of SNAP participants were children (44 percent), elderly (10 percent), or disabled nonelderly adults (10 percent).

This report offers updated estimates of the number of people eligible for WIC benefits in 2013, including (1) estimates by participant category (including children by single year of age) and coverage rates; (2) updated estimates in U.S. territories; and (3) confidence intervals. The national estimates presented in this report are based on a methodology developed in 2003 by the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council (CNSTAT). The report’s State-level estimates use a methodology developed by the Urban Institute that apportions the national figures using data from the American Community Survey.

WIC Participant and Program Characteristics 2014 (PC 2014) summarizes the demographic characteristics of participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nationwide in April 2014. 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. PC 2014 is the most recent in a series of reports generated from WIC State management information system data biennially since 1992.

The 2014 Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP): Assessment of Sponsor Tiering Determinations examines the accuracy of the classification of family day care homes (FDCHs) participating in the CACFP. In response to the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act (IPERA) of 2010, the assessment provides estimates of the number of FDCHs in 2014 that were misclassified by sponsoring agencies into the wrong tier, and the resulting erroneous payments for meals and snacks reimbursed at the wrong rate.

This is the tenth in a series of annual reports to examine administrative errors incurred during the local educational agency’s (LEA) approval process of household applications for free and reduced-price meals in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). This report examines administrative error estimates in student certification for free and reduced-price NSLP meals.

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. Direct certification is a process conducted by the states and by local educational agencies to certify eligible children for free meals without the need for household applications. 

FNS developed the Access, Participation, Eligibility and Certification (APEC) study series, which collects and analyzes data from a nationally representative sample of schools and school food authorities (SFAs) about every 5 years. APEC allows FNS to develop a national estimate of erroneous payment rates and amounts in three key areas: certification error, meal claiming error and aggregation error.  FNS recently completed APEC II, which collected data in School Year 2012-2013 and this report summarizes those findings.

This report offers updated estimates of the number of people eligible for WIC benefits in 2012, including (1) estimates by participant category (including children by single year of age) and coverage rates; (2) updated estimates in U.S. territories; and (3) confidence intervals. The national estimates presented in this report are based on a methodology developed in 2003 by the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council (CNSTAT). The report’s State-level estimates use a methodology developed by the Urban Institute that apportions the national figures using data from the American Community Survey.