Iowa Food Security, Insecurity and Hunger—No More Food Stamps: Iowa Households that Left the Food Stamp Program

Details of a research project that studied Iowa food stamp recipients who left the program in 1997.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/extension_communities_pubs/1014/thumbnail.jp

Food insecurity and childhood obesity: beyond categorical and linear representations

Previous work on the relationship between food insecurity and childhood overweight has lead to a wide array of answers – some have found a positive relationship, others no relationship, and still others a negative relationship. This previous work has shared one thing in common – all have used parametric models. In this paper we move beyond parametric models by using non-parametric models. With data from the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and a wide array parametric methods, we find evidence across different samples of a positive relationship, no relationship, and a negative relationship between childhood overweight and food insecurity. When we turn to non-parametric methods, however, this ambiguity across samples is not as prevalent. Instead, across different samples, we find (a) increases in the probability of food insecurity in the middle of the BMI distribution, (b) increases in the probability at the very high end of the BMI, and (c) no relationship across the entire distribution. We present some parametric models that roughly mimic these relationships. Our results indicate that efforts to reduce food insecurity will either have no impact on childhood overweight or would lead to reductions in childhood overweight.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty,

Research to Action: A Campus-Community Partnership to Address Health Issues of the Food Insecure

A university-community partnership assessed the food security and health status of food pantry participants in a midwestern urban community. Eighty percent of households surveyed were food insecure, and 40% experienced fair or poor health. The sample experienced higher rates of chronic disease than the general population. A nutrition education program designed to meet specific nutrition and health-related needs of pantry participants was developed. Implications include training pantry staff about chronic disease and its relationship to nutrition, identifying pantry foods that provide positive health benefits, and developing consumer publications focused on selecting and preparing pantry foods when one has chronic disease

Research to Action: A Campus-Community Partnership to Address Health Issues of the Food Insecure

A university-community partnership assessed the food security and health status of food pantry participants in a midwestern urban community. Eighty percent of households surveyed were food insecure, and 40% experienced fair or poor health. The sample experienced higher rates of chronic disease than the general population. A nutrition education program designed to meet specific nutrition and health-related needs of pantry participants was developed. Implications include training pantry staff about chronic disease and its relationship to nutrition, identifying pantry foods that provide positive health benefits, and developing consumer publications focused on selecting and preparing pantry foods when one has chronic disease

Iowa Food Security, Insecurity and Hunger—Emergency Food Resources: Meeting Food Needs of Iowa Households

Report of an ISU Extension study of people who used food pantries in Polk, Scott, Decatur, and Monroe counties in 2002.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/extension_communities_pubs/1013/thumbnail.jp

Effects of Family, Friends, and Relative Prices on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption by African American Youths

Facilitating healthy eating among young people, particularly among minorities who are at high risk for gaining excess weight, is at the forefront of current policy discussions and food program reviews. We investigate the effects of social interactions and relative prices on fruit and vegetable consumption by African American youths using rich behavioral data from the Family and Community Health Study and area-specific food prices. We find the presence of endogenous effects between a youth and parent, but not between a youth and friend. Lower relative prices of fruits and vegetables tend to increase intakes. Results suggest that health interventions targeting a family member may be an effective way to increase fruit and vegetable intake by African Americans as a result of spillover consumption effects between the youths and parents.social interactions, healthy food choices, fruit and vegetable consumption, African American youth, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, I12, J15, C35,

Location and the Low-Income Experience: Analyses of Program Dynamics in the Iowa Family Investment Program

In 1993, the state of Iowa, through waivers, implemented reforms creating the Family Investment Program (FIP), a program similar to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) created under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). The goals of FIP (helping program recipients leave poverty and become self-supporting) parallel the intent of TANF and PRWORA (Holcomb et al. 1998; Iowa Department of Human Services 1996). FIP merged and coordinated several existing programs and tied support for job training, education, child care, and transportation more directly to income transfers. Iowa has had to change FIP very little to meet current federal guidelines. Thus, Iowa provides over seven years of experience under a program with rules and incentives similar to those instituted nationwide in 1996