This study examines how sudden cuts to USDA programs supporting the charitable food system (i.e., The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement (LFPA)) affect the supply of healthy food available for distribution by food banks. Existing data from 15 food banks will be analyzed, and additional data will More

This study conducted a comprehensive literature review to understand the dimensions of stigma associated with both government food program utilization (i.e., SNAP, WIC) and non-profit administered free food programs (i.e., emergency food programs such as food banks, pantries, and cupboards) and to examine the effectiveness of existing stigma reduction interventions in the context of food More

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) commitment to child obesity ends in December 2025, marking the conclusion of a two-decade investment in Healthy Eating Research (HER). As part of our RWJF legacy, HER is developing a national research agenda for policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) interventions and strategies to promote food and nutrition security, optimal More

Nutritional exposures during pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life influence growth and risk for obesity. Upstream interventions that involve policy, systems, and/or environmental approaches may support equitable nutrition and healthy growth early in life. Yet little is known about application of these interventions in clinical settings. This scoping review characterized the More

This study investigated whether demographic, social, and economic determinants of health, including length of time participating in safety net programs, are associated with diet quality and weight status in early childhood. Using the WIC infant and toddler feeding practices study-2, classification and regression tree identified the sequence of binary splits that best differentiated the sample More

Addressing structural racism requires structural solutions. Racial and/or health equity impact assessments (R/HEIAs) help predict how a proposed policy, action, budget, or decision is likely to create, worsen, prevent, or reduce racial inequities. R/HEIAs are similar to fiscal notes or environmental impact assessments except that they focus on racial inequities. They analyze how a proposed More

This meta-ethnography aimed to examine and thematically analyze relevant qualitative studies to create a nutrition security conceptual framework. Following the 7-step process for a meta-ethnography, 6,831 studies were screened and eligible papers relating to nutrition security were included. Two researchers independently read and extracted data from each paper. This information was then combined, and 2 More

This scoping review aims to summarize the state of the evidence on associations between participation in nonfood social safety net programs (eg, income assistance, housing assistance) in the United States and food- and nutrition insecurity–related outcomes. Six databases were systematically searched for peer-reviewed articles. Included articles (n = 65) reported on studies that examined 10 unique social More

This study focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic-related experiences of non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic families with young children (birth to age 5) and low incomes. Families with low incomes were overrepresented among the unemployed populations in most U.S. metropolitan areas, and a higher percentage of non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic workers with low incomes were displaced for More

The COVID-19 pandemic took a severe toll on the U.S. economy as the public health crisis triggered steep job losses, business and school closures, supply backlogs, and rising inflation and rent. Households with low incomes were already rent-burdened before the pandemic and the pandemic’s economic fallout further exacerbated existing conditions. Higher rent and income loss More