Healthy Retail Research Convening

Healthy Eating Research (HER) is commissioning the Center for Science in the Public Interest to produce a report outlining the proceedings of a convening to develop a research agenda for healthy retail. The resulting research agenda and proceedings will be based on a series of literature reviews, white papers, interviews, and convening discussions. In 2010, More

The Academic, Behavioral, and Health Influence of Summer Child Nutrition Programs: A Narrative Review and Proposed Research and Policy Agenda

Since 1975, the US Department of Agriculture has sponsored the Summer Food Service Program as a nationwide strategy for providing nutritious meals to children and youth (aged 18 years or younger) in low-income communities during the summer months. Many programs are sponsored by community organizations as well as school districts that may offer the program More

Studying the Community Eligibility Provision’s Broad Impact–On Child Nutrition, Health, Academics, School Attendance, and Family Food Security

In 2010, the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) initiated a number of major changes in child nutrition programs, including the establishment of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Implemented nationwide in SY 2014/15 to increase school meal participation and improve food security among at-risk children, the CEP More

Studying the Impact on Children’s Nutrition and Health of Participation in, and How to Increase Access to, Multiple Safety-Net Programs

One in five U.S. children are eligible to participate in federal income, food, and housing support programs. These programs reduce the prevalence and intensity of poverty, but their combined effects on nutrition and health are not well understood, and participation is not maximized. The proposed research examines the incremental and combined impact of participation in More

Evaluation of the USDA FINI Program Finds Benefits for Consumers, Farmers and Retailers, and Local Economies

In December 2018, Congress passed a new farm bill which included a reauthorization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) Grant Program. This brief summarizes the findings of a recent qualitative evaluation of FINI, which concludes that the program has benefits for consumers, farmers and retailers, and local economies. This More

A Qualitative Evaluation of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) Grant Program

This research describes findings from interviews conducted with grantees of multi-year community-based and large-scale projects funded by the FINI mechanism, as well as with stakeholders who could speak to FINI on a broader level. A total of 22 interviews were conducted with 19 organizations. Key elements addressed in this evaluation include: 1) Best practices and More

Best Practices and Innovative Solutions to Overcome Barriers to Delivering Policy, Systems and Environmental Changes in Rural Communities

This study investigated the barriers to implementing policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change initiatives within Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) programming in U.S. rural communities, as well as strategies to overcome these barriers. SNAP-Ed staff members across 15 states were surveyed and/or interviewed regarding the types nutrition-related PSE programming currently being implemented, barriers to implementation, More

Measuring Micro-Level Effects of a New Supermarket: Do Residents Within 0.5 Mile Have Improved Dietary Behaviors?

This study aimed to examine whether a newly opened supermarket in the Bronx, NY, changed household food availability and consumption of healthy and unhealthy food items among families who lived within half a mile of the new supermarket. Participants were recruited through street intercept surveys, with a subset of respondents later completing a 24-hour dietary More

Improved Parental Dietary Quality is Associated with Children’s Dietary Intake Through the Home Environment

This study aimed to assess the relative impact of the home food environment on children’s diet after the introduction of a new supermarket in a food desert. This study builds upon a natural experiment to longitudinally examine the food-purchasing behaviors and diets among a randomly selected population of households in two major Pittsburgh food desert More

Informing Rural Schools’ Efforts to Sustainably Implement Revised Federal Standards for School Meals and Snacks

Recent federal policies for revised school meals and Smart Snacks standards aimed for all children to have equitable access to health-promoting food environments. However, studies indicate that rural school, particularly at the secondary level, are lagging behind urban schools in the quality of policies and practices. The aims of this study are to: 1) identify More