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.
Pursuant to the 2010 Agriculture Appropriations Act, FNS initiated and carried out the Summer Food for Children demonstration project, aimed at preventing hunger among children during summer months.
The report describes the project goals and strategies, provides a general description of each grantee, and gives a synopsis of project performance.
This study examines the feasibility of assessing causes of variation in SAE by addressing two fundamental sets of questions: Is it possible to measure SAE consistently across states to credibly assess the degree of variation? Are alternative ways to measure SAE needed? If so, what level of effort is needed? Can SAE variation be explained in the absence of a controlled experiment? If yes, what are the alternative approaches? Which are recommended?
The Child and Adult Care Food Program subsidizes nutritious meals and snacks served to participants in child care nationwide, providing different levels or “tiers” of meal reimbursement based on the income level of participating children, providers, and nearby geographic areas. Policymakers have long been concerned that programs such as CACFP are not as accessible to eligible children in rural areas as in urban areas.
The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 authorized a pilot to operate in rural Pennsylvania during the summers of 2005 and 2006. The purpose was to test whether lowering the site eligibility threshold from 50 percent to 40 percent would increase the number of children participating in the program.
This study focuses primarily on the changes as they related to the FSP. The study documents the changes made to FSP application and case maintenance procedures, and it assesses the potential impact of these changes on access to the FSP. The study is designed to help FNS as well as states that are considering modernization to learn from Florida’s experiences.
The report assesses the existing commercial infrastructure of on-line Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) in the context of multi-state, multi-program EBT. The findings are based on interviews of respondents involved with the EFT commercial infrastructure.
The Maryland demonstration was the first statewide roll-out of an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) system involving multiple programs on a single card. The goal was to confirm that a large- scale, multi-program EBT system is technically feasible and determine whether such a system can achieve cost-neutrality government-wide while maintaining high quality service for recipients. The test involved food stamps plus five cash-benefit programs: Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Bonus Child Support for AFDC Recipients, Disability Assistance Loan Program, Non-Public Assistance Child Support, and Public Assistance for Adults. All parts of Maryland, both urban and rural, were converted to EBT.
The objectives of the demonstration were to determine the technological feasibility of offline EBT; whether it would be accepted by stakeholder groups; and whether it would be cost-effective.