Start Date: February 2020

ID #: 77236

Principal Investigator: Hilary Seligman, MD, MAS

Organization: The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco

Funding Round: HER Round 12

See more related research

Share


Households with children ages 6 and younger are at a particularly high risk of food insecurity (14.3% food insecure). These are also the households in which new pregnancies are most likely to occur. The Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is designed to improve the health of low-income pregnant and post-partum women, infants, and children ages 5 and younger by providing financial support for nutritious food purchases and nutrition education. The extent to which food security, dietary intake, and/or birth outcomes can be improved by supplementing the existing WIC benefit with fruits and vegetables (F&Vs) remains unknown. This project will leverage WIC infrastructure and an ongoing local voucher program (EatSF) to provide $40 in F&V vouchers in addition to WIC benefits for pregnant WIC participants in San Francisco. This group will be compared to WIC participants in neighboring areas who are not receiving F&V vouchers in order to determine the impact of supplemental vouchers on reducing food insecurity, improving dietary intake, and improving birth outcomes. The goal of this project is to provide actionable evidence that can be translated into equity-focused strategies and policies for improving diet quality and food security for low-income pregnant women and infants.

Related Research

June 2022

Additional Fruit and Vegetable Vouchers for Pregnant WIC Clients: An Equity-Focused Strategy to Improve Food Security and Diet Quality

Women with low household income and from racial/ethnic minority groups are at elevated risk of food insecurity. Food insecurity during pregnancy is associated with overall less healthy diets, lower intake of the pregnancy-supportive nutrients iron and folate, and significant variations in diet across the course of a month. The goal of this study was to More

January 2025

Beyond Food Assistance: A Scoping Review Examining Associations of Nonfood Social Safety Net Programs in the United States With Food Insecurity and Nutrition Outcomes

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

January 2025

A Systematic Review: The Impact of COVID-19 Policy Flexibilities on SNAP and WIC Programmatic Outcomes

The objective of this study was to explore the impact of policy flexibilities deployed during the COVID-19 public health emergency on access, enrollment/retention, benefit utilization, and perceptions of SNAP and WIC. The review identified 37 eligible articles. Twelve studies evaluated policy flexibilities in SNAP only, 21 in WIC only, and 4 in both programs. Across More