The Costs and Impacts of Rising Food Prices Among Low-Income Households

The pressure of rising food prices on low-income households is often assumed to be primarily an issue for developing economies, where fluctuations in food staple prices can have dramatic consequences for food security and social and political stability. Observers often note that Americans benefit from relatively low food prices and spend far less to feed their families than their counterparts in many other parts of the world. Indeed, the average American household spent 7.6% of their household expenditures on food purchases at home in 2009, while the comparable percentage exceeded 40% of household expenditures in diverse countries such as Mexico, Ukraine, and Indonesia. When contrasted to other American expenditures, such as housing costs (34.4% in 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), it is not surprising that food prices do not often emerge as a topic of concern. However, for families who routinely struggle to make ends meet, they must trade off which bills to pay each month to meet their basic needs. Recent episodes of food price inflation in the midst and aftermath of the Great Recession are particularly challenging for these families. An examination of families\u27 desperate struggle to afford basic needs and to weather shifts in their purchasing power suggests that both the public and policymakers have hastily overlooked the impact food prices have on low income families

Addressing Food Insecurity through the FRESH Delivery Project, Osapa Tunowa: The Chickasaw Nation

In 2020, the Walmart Foundation awarded grants to 11 community-based projects offering innovative approaches to supporting healthy food access. The grants focused on initiatives that improve access to fresh foods for regions and populations experiencing disproportionately high rates of food insecurity. The Chickasaw Nation, one of the 11 grantees, focused on reducing food insecurity among tribal members through a mobile market that provided access to fruits and vegetables for tribal members in mostly rural areas.Key features of the initiative included providing prepackaged boxes of fruits and vegetables in 12 locations as well as delivery options for tribal community members who faced significant transportation barriers. We found that using a mobile market format and providing "last mile" delivery was reported to improve access to fruits and vegetables for tribal communities and citizens.

Food insecurity exists in every county across the U.S., making food assistance critical for millions in need

While food insecurity in America is by no means a new problem, it has been made worse by the Great Recession. Now, about 49 million people in the U.S. are living in food insecure households, and nearly 47 million receive assistance from national food banks. Looking at the results of Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap study, Elaine Waxman, Amy Satoh & Craig Gundersen write that unemployment is a major driver of the food insecurity which exists in every county in the U.S. They argue that food insecurity can be addressed through improving people’s participation in federal food assistance programs, especially among children

Obesity across America: Geographic Variation in Disease Prevalence and Treatment Options

More than 4 in 10 adults in the US are affected by obesity, defined as experiencing an accumulation of body fat higher than what is considered healthy for a given height. Obesity is associated with increased risks for serious health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and various cancers. People of all genders, of all races and ethnicities, and in all geographic areas experience obesity.This report examines existing data and research to comprehensively describe the scope and prevalence of obesity and available obesity treatments in the US. We look at the current state-level prevalence of obesity and changes in state-level obesity prevalence from 2011 to 2020. We also examine current county-level obesity prevalence and which counties have the highest and lowest levels of obesity and related comorbidities. Then, we describe insurance coverage for four obesity treatment options (screening and counseling, nutritional counseling, pharmacotherapy, and bariatric surgery) for four insurance plans (fee-for-service Medicaid, Medicaid managed care, state employee health plans, and state essential health benefits benchmark plans)

Retail Food Access and Obesity Prevalence: Mapping Variation across the United States

Obesity has increased rapidly during the last few decades and is a significant risk factor for many chronic diseases, often resulting in higher rates of morbidity and mortality. The role of eating behaviors and individual food choices, as well as the growing array of clinical tools to reduce obesity at the individual level, has received extensive attention as public health researchers seek to understand why the rate of obesity in the US has escalated so rapidly in a relatively short period. But the focus on individual actions and tailored clinical management can obscure how the larger environment shapes the available choices and opportunities, particularly for those in communities where obesity is common. A central feature of that environment is the quality of food access.We explore how access to different types of retail food stores—which may in turn shape the foods that consumers choose—varies widely across the US, with particular attention to areas with higher rates of obesity.

"Finally, We're Being Recognized": Stories and Perspectives from Applicants to the Excluded Workers Fund

Although expanded unemployment insurance played a large role in decreasing the number of people living in poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic, millions—most notably undocumented workers—were excluded from these benefits. The New York State Excluded Workers Fund (EWF) is the most notable example of legislation to address this gap. Passed in April 2021, the EWF approved 130,000 excluded workers to receive financial support that roughly equaled the average total amount unemployed workers eligible for unemployment compensation received, approximately $15,600 per person. To understand the experiences of workers who applied for EWF and of those that did not receive the fund, we conducted 15 interviews with workers in English, Spanish, Bangla, and Korean and 9 interviews with staff from community-based organizations serving various populations in New York and providing crucial application assistance.We found that those who received the fund were able to use it to make ends meet during a period of severe job loss bypaying back rent and other bills;repaying debt incurred during the pandemic;stabilizing or improving their housing conditions;paying for basic needs like food;investing in their children and education;taking care of their health and paying for medical expenses;stabilizing and expanding employment opportunities; andcreating local economic stimulus.We also found that the EWF had a significant impact on excluded worker recognition and their sense of power and dignity that comes from being treated as a valued member of society. We found that workers who applied but did not receive the fund because of difficulties providing the required documentation faced continuing stress around unstable income, debt burden, and other dire circumstances.Overall, New York State Department of Labor quickly and effectively adopted the EWF, but ultimately the fund ran out of money more quickly than anticipated. Although the fund was a high-impact intervention for those who benefitted, it has not provided solutions to the ongoing instability that accompanies a lack of lawful permanent status in the US

Expanding Inclusion in the Social Safety Net: Impacts of New Yorks Excluded Workers Fund

Response to the COVID-19 pandemic and recession spurred a wave of policy innovation around the country. Although federal efforts typically carved out undocumented immigrants, many states and localities around the country tried to bring immigrants and others who were excluded back in. New York's Excluded Worker Fund (EWF) was the largest of these efforts. The $2.1 billion program allowed 130,000 immigrants without work authorization, and some others who fell between the gaps of federal aid, to get unemployment compensation if they lost work during the pandemic recession.To better understand the successes and shortcomings of the program, the Urban Institute and Immigration Research Initiative surveyed individuals in the population targeted for aid by this fund.Findings from this survey are intended to help inform advocacy efforts and future legislation, as New York advocates urge inclusion in the 2023 budget and states and localities across the nation consider the implementation of permanent unemployment benefit programs for excluded workers

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Accessing the Safety Net: Administrative Barriers to Public Benefits in Metropolitan Chicago

Accessing the Safety Net is a report of the Public Benefits Hotline Research Project. It presents a portrait of a year in the life of the public benefits system in metropolitan Chicago (Cook County) from the perspective of individuals trying to navigate within it. It analyzes the record of calls made to the Public Benefits Hotline by area residents reporting difficulties in obtaining access to benefits. It reveals systematic difficulties that Chicago-area residents have experienced in accessing safety-net programs. The record of calls also illuminates some of the rarely seen day-today realities of a complex administrative system at work