Comment Request: Understanding the Relationship Between Poverty, Well-Being, and Food Security

Summary

Through this data collection effort, FNS seeks to understand the interrelated factors that lead to household food insecurity. Data will be collected in six counties experiencing persistent intergenerational poverty through a study titled Understanding the Relationship Between Poverty, Well-Being, and Food Security.

Understanding the Relationship Between Poverty, Well-Being, and Food Security will allow FNS to gain a deeper understanding of the interrelated factors that affect the food security status of SNAP beneficiaries and SNAP-eligible nonparticipants, information which has not previously collected in persistently poor counties. The USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) defines counties as being persistently poor if 20 percent or more of county residents were poor at each of several points in time over a 30-year period, measured by the 1980, 1990, and 2000 censuses and the 2007-2011 American Community Survey. Examining food insecurity and poverty in these populations will help FNS better understand the association between SNAP, other USDA-administered programs, and community-based assistance with well-being and the food environment.

Study objectives include:

Objective 1: Produce descriptive statistics on key sociodemographic and economic variables, including household food security in a representative sample of all residents in each of six persistent-poverty counties.

Objective 2: Produce descriptive statistics on key sociodemographic and economic variables, including household food insecurity in two representative stratified subsamples of low and very low food-secure residents, in each county of six persistent-poverty counties.

Objective 3: Produce descriptive statistics for each subgroup in each county on key social, geospatial, and other policy-actionable elements of well-being and material deprivation associated with both household food security and SNAP participation.

Objective 4: Characterize the social context and the life course of individuals, within a multigenerational family unit, as they define their experiences with food insecurity through In-Depth Interviews (IDIs).