Housing instability and high housing costs are important correlates of food insecurity, and are disproportionately present for Black, Latino, and single-parent households. Although the last two years witnessed the largest allocation of funding for emergency rental assistance (ERA) in U.S. history, the impact of these programs on children’s outcomes, particularly their health and nutrition, is More

The COVID-19 pandemic is worsening the disparities in food access in the United States. As consumers have been increasingly using grocery online ordering services to limit their exposure to the COVID-19 virus, participants of federal nutrition assistance programs lack the online benefit redemption option. With the support of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), retailers More

Online ordering is an innovative method being pilot-tested in some stores to facilitate WIC participants’ food benefit redemption, which has become especially important in the COVID-19 pandemic. The present research aimed to examine the online ordering behaviors among 726 WIC households who adopted WIC online ordering in a grocery chain, XYZ (anonymous) store, in Oklahoma More

In response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act authorized USDA to approve waivers, requested by WIC state agencies and Tribal Nations, which would ensure WIC benefit access for families already participating in the program, as well as newly eligible families. These waivers and flexibilities provided researchers a More

A growing number of consumers are ordering groceries online and picking them up in-store (OOPIS) to limit their exposure to the COVID-19 virus. Although OOPIS has been widely adopted, WIC participants in most states are unable to use OOPIS to redeem their WIC benefits due to significant legal barriers. To overcome these barriers, Prime Time More

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law on December 10, 2015, reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. ESSA created an opportunity to broaden accountability beyond traditional subjects, such as math, to potentially focus on health and wellness in schools. States could select health and wellness-related indicators, and identify strategies More

Access to safe and appealing drinking water in child care centers and schools is a key strategy to build healthy habits that children will use for life to maintain a healthy body weight and to support overall health. This study compiled drinking water policies for schools and child-care centers in 20 states and developed policy More

To understand how advocates, schools, the food industry, policymakers, and others have shaped discussions about school nutrition at the state and local level since the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA), Berkeley Media Studies Group and the Public Health Advocacy Institute systematically examined news coverage and legislative and regulatory documents from 11 states. More

In the early 2000s, states began developing Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) as a structural approach to improve the quality of Early Care and Education (ECE) programs. QRIS are voluntary or required systems designed to reach large numbers of ECE providers, particularly those serving lower-income children receiving child-care subsidies. The topics covered by QRIS More

The purpose of this project is to put safe drinking water in schools and child-care centers on par with other foods and beverages regulated by nutrition policies. The study will compile drinking water policies for schools and child-care centers in 20 states, use what has been learned by the healthy food and beverage procurement movement More