link to Rural Assistance Center Homepage skip navigation
Funding Information
Guides
News &
Events
Experts &
Organizations
Publications
& Maps
Success
Stories
State
Resources

Food and Hunger

On this page
  FAQs
Tools
Funding
Maps
Documents
Journals
Organizations
Terms & Acronyms
Success Stories
Bibliographies
News
Events
 

Introduction

Hunger is the uneasy or painful sensation caused by lack of food. Lack of food due to poverty or constrained resources, can lead to malnutrition over time.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture publication, Household Food Security in the United States, 2005, 89% of American households had adequate food throughout the entire year in 2005, meaning that they had access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The rest of the households, 11%, were food insecure and did not have adequate food sometime during that year.

As reported in USDA Food Security in the United States: Conditions and Trends, in 2005, 35 million people lived in food-insecure households, including 12.4 million children. Of these individuals, 7.6 million adults and 3.2 million children lived in households where someone experienced hunger during the year.

Physical and mental changes regarding inadequate food intakes can have harmful effects on learning, development, productivity, physical and psychological health, and family life.

Frequently Asked Questions

Tools

America's Farm Bill 2007
Web site
Provides 2007 farm bill proposals, transcripts, news releases, fact sheets, and resources.
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
Web site
Works to improve the health and well-being of Americans by developing and promoting dietary guidance that links scientific research to the nutrition needs of consumers.
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
Web site
Provides federal funds for meals and snacks to licensed public and nonprofit child care centers and family and group child care homes for preschool children. Funds are also provided for meals and snacks served at after-school programs for school-age children, and to adult day care centers serving chronically impaired adults or people over age 60.
Sponsoring organization: USDA Food and Nutrition Service

Child Nutrition Programs
Web site
Lists state agencies administering the Child Nutrition Programs, guidance, regulations, policy, reimbursement rates, and more.
Sponsoring organization: USDA Food and Nutrition Service

Domestic Hunger & Federal Food Programs
Database
Provides a listing and survey of available food programs throughout the United States.
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)
Web site
Helps supplement the diets of low-income needy persons, including elderly people, by providing them with emergency food and nutrition assistance.
Sponsoring organization: USDA Food and Nutrition Service

Expert Resource Directory
Database
Identifies farmers, educators and community leaders to serve as expert resources on subjects ranging from agricultural trade to biotech and farm policy.
Sponsoring organization: W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Food & Nutrition Information Center
Web site
Provides a directory to resources for consumers, nutrition and health professionals, educators and government personnel. Offers printable educational materials, government reports, research papers and more.
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs
Web site
Lists various food and nutrition programs, publications, maps, and more.
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service

Food and Society
Web site
Supports the creation and expansion of community-based food systems that are locally owned and controlled, environmentally sound, and health promoting. Focuses on three primary areas: market-based change, institutional support, and public policy.
Sponsoring organization: W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Food Security
Web site
Provides resources for food security measurement, biosecurity challenges, and food security research.
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Food Security in the United States
Web site
Plays a leading role in Federal research on food security and hunger in U.S. households and communities. This research facilitates informed public debate regarding food security, its impact on the well-being of children, adults, families, and communities, and its relationship to public policies, public assistance programs, and the economy.
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service

Food Stamp Outreach Program
Web site
Works with State and local food stamp agencies, advocates, employers, community and faith-based organizations, and others to reach out to eligible low-income people who are not currently participating in the Food Stamp Program and share information about the nutrition benefits of food stamps to help them make an information participation decision.
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Food Stamp Program
Web site
Serves as the first line of defense against hunger. It enables low-income families to buy nutritious food with coupons and Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards. Food stamp recipients spend their benefits to buy eligible food in authorized retail food stores.
Sponsoring organization: USDA Food and Nutrition Service

Food Stamps Pre-Screening Eligibility Tool
Web site
Determines potential eligibility to receive Food Stamp benefits based on amounts of earnings, rent or mortgage, utility bills, child support, day care expenses, medical bills (60 or older, or disabled), child support payments or SSI, social security or VA payments.
Sponsoring organization: USDA Food and Nutrition Service

Foundation Funding Guide: Child and Adolescent Nutrition and Physical Activity
Web site
Lists state and national foundations with an interest in child and adolescent nutrition and physical activity.
Sponsoring organization: National Association of County and City Health Officials

Hunger in the U.S.
Web site
Discusses hunger and poverty in the United States, provides statistics and data, results of surveys and FAQs.
Sponsoring organization: Food Research and Action Center

MyPyramid: Steps to a Healthier You
Web site
Replaces the original food guide pyramid. Helps in choosing proper foods and amounts by providing an estimate of what and how much is needed to eat based on age, sex, and activity level.
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Agriculture

National Hunger Clearinghouse Search Directory
Database
Consists of an online search directory which contains information on thousands of organizations across the United States that are working on hunger, poverty, nutrition, agriculture and food issues. Includes contacts for those looking for food assistance, volunteer opportunities, or places to donate food.
Sponsoring organization: World Hunger Year

Online Information About Key Low-Income Benefit Programs
Web site
Links to state-by-state information on food stamps, Medicaid, SCHIP, TANF and child care.
Sponsoring organization: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Funding

2008 Hunger Champions
This program honors local food stamp offices that provide exemplary service in assisting eligible clients to obtain food stamp benefits.

Fiscal Year 2008 Food Stamp Participation Grants
Grants to improve the accessibility and awareness of USDA's Food Stamp Program for low-income households.

Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program (FANRP), Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program
Funding for research and evaluation studies that have direct implications for USDA's food and nutrition assistance programs.

Great American Bake Sale Grant
Grants program that helps ensure that low-income children receive nutritious food during critical times when they are out of school and particularly vulnerable to hunger.

Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards
Awards to community-based organizations judged outstanding for their innovative, creative approaches to fighting hunger and poverty in the U.S.

Healthy Sprouts Awards
These awards support school garden programs that use the garden to teach about nutrition and the issue of hunger in the United States.

National School Lunch/After School Snack Program
Funding to provide nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day.

Presbyterian Hunger Program
The Presbyterian Hunger Program provides grants in the five areas: 1) Direct Food Relief; 2) Development Assistance; 3) Influencing Public Policy; 4) Life-style Integrity; and 5) Education and Interpretation.

School Breakfast Program (SBP)
Provides cash assistance to States to operate nonprofit breakfast programs in schools and residential childcare institutions.

Special Milk Program
A program that provides milk to children in schools, child care institutions and eligible camps that do not participate in other Federal child nutrition meal service programs.

Summer Food Service Program
Funding to provide free, nutritious meals and snacks to help children in low-income areas get the nutrition they need during the summer months.

Inactive Funding

Inactive Funding Opportunities - Lists additional funding programs for this topic that are not currently accepting applications. Programs that are inactive may be offered again in the future.

Maps & Map Collections

Food Stamp Program Map Machine
Interactive
Geographic coverage: United States
Interactive, web-based mapping utility that illustrates program participation and benefit levels down to the county level. Shows per capita participation, per capita benefits, changes from year to year, and more. The map's tools allow you to call up tabular data for the county, State, or Nation.
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service

Summer Food Service Program Map Machine
Interactive
Geographic coverage: United States
Interactive mapping utility which integrates three different types of information--Census data, SFSP participation records, and Common Core Data--and provides visual displays of SFSP sponsors and sites in geographic relation to concentrated areas of child poverty. Also provides all the underlying data in tabular format for more in depth analysis. Displays maps and data for the entire Nation or a particular State, county, or neighborhood.
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service

Regulations, Forms & Other Useful Documents

Almanac of Hunger and Poverty in America
Sponsoring organization: America's Second Harvest
Provides national and state statistics on hunger and poverty. Includes an overview of federal nutrition programs.
Date: 2006

Blueprint to End Hunger
Sponsoring organization: Center on Hunger and Poverty
Proposes steps that federal, state and local government and community organizations can take to decrease the number of food insecure and hungry families in the United States.
Date: 06 / 2004

Building Healthier Communities: Local Nutrition and Physical Activity Programs
Sponsoring organization: National Association of County and City Health Officials
Provides examples of local public health agency programs that address individual nutrition and physical activity as well as environmental and policy changes.

Can Food Stamps Do More to Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective—How Can We Tell If We Are Making a Difference? ERS Efforts To Improve Evaluation of Nutrition Outcomes
Author(s): Elizabeth Frazao, Joanne F. Guthrie, David Smallwood
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Discusses ERS efforts to improve the tools for evaluation of nutrition outcomes.
Date: 09 / 2007

Challenge of Compliance: Food Security in Rural Households Affected by Welfare
Author(s): Pamela Monroe, Carol O'Neil, Vicky Tiller, Jennifer Smith
Sponsoring organization: Southern Rural Development Center
Shares the findings of a research project on welfare reform and food security issues.
Date: 07 / 2002

Characteristics of Food Stamp Households: Fiscal Year 2006
Author(s): Kari Wolkwitz
Sponsoring organization: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Presents an overview of the Food Stamp Program eligibility requirements and benefit levels. Provides detailed tabulations, including rural tabulations, of household and participant characteristics for the nation and by State from October 2005 to September 2006.
Date: 09 / 2007

Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit
Author(s): Barbara Cohen
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Provides a toolkit of standardized measurement tools for assessing various aspects of community food security.
Date: 07 / 2002

Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Updated every five years, this document contains new guidelines regarding good dietary habits, promoting health, and reducing risk for major chronic diseases.
Date: 01 / 2005

Dynamics of Food Insecurity in Rural America: Are There Regional Differences?
Author(s): Christine M. Olson, Emily O. Miller, Josephine A. Swanson, Myla S. Strawderman
Sponsoring organization: Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development
Examines regional differences in the changes across time in the prevalence of food insecurity among poor rural families with children. Identifies factors associated with changes in food insecurity status.
Date: 04 / 2005

Effects of Food Assistance and Nutrition Programs on Nutrition and Health: Volume 1, Research Design
Author(s): William L. Hamilton, Peter H. Rossi
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Reviews the research designs available to evaluators for assessing the effect of USDA's food assistance and nutrition programs.
Date: 02 / 2002

Emergency Providers Help Poor Households Put Food on the Table
Author(s): Laura Tiehen
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Describes the use of emergency food assistance. Includes information on who uses emergency food services, who provides emergency food, and the relationship of federal food programs to emergency food programs.
Journal citation: Amber Waves
Date: 06 / 2004

Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Small Grants Program: Executive Summaries of 2003 Research Grants
Author(s): Eileen Stommes, Laura Tiehen
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Describes projects addressing food assistance and child well-being, food insecurity and hunger, obesity, and related topics. Includes projects addressing rural and American Indian populations.
Date: 12 / 2004

Food Assistance Landscape, 2006
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Presents preliminary data to examine trends in the food assistance programs through fiscal 2005. Discusses an ERS study that examined patterns of entry into and exit from the Food Stamp Program.
Date: 03 / 2006

Food Assistance: How Strong Is the Safety Net?
Author(s): Michael LeBlanc, Biing-Hwan Lin, David Smallwood
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Discusses that food assistance programs increase food spending and combat poverty, but their effect on nutrition is more uncertain.
Journal citation: Amber Waves
Date: 09 / 2006

Food Insecurity in Households With Children
Author(s): Mark Nord
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Examines the extent to which children's eating patterns and food intake were affected by the food insecurity of their families.
Date: 07 / 2003

Food Insecurity in Poor Rural Families with Children: A Human Capital Perspective
Author(s): Christine M. Olson
Sponsoring organization: Rural Families Speak Project
Policy brief discussing food insecurity in rural families. Includes discussion of contributing factors, as well as policy implications.
Date: 03 / 2006

Food Resource Management: Key to Food Security Outcomes Among Rural, Low-Income Families
Author(s): Stephanie Grutzmacher
Sponsoring organization: Maryland Family Policy Impact Seminar
Describes skills that may protect families from food insecurity, based on a national study of rural, low-income families.
Date: 2004

Food Stamp Access in Urban America: A City-by-City Snapshot
Sponsoring organization: Food Research and Action Center
Looks at food stamps and hunger in 25 of America’s largest urban areas, situated in 20 states and the District of Columbia, looks at food stamp participation and measures and the number of underserved people.
Date: 09 / 2005

Food Stamp Participation Rate Down in Urban Areas but Not in Rural
Author(s): Sheena McConnell, James Ohls
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Discusses the effect of welfare reform on food stamp program participation in rural and urban areas.
Date: 07 / 2001

Food Stamp Program's Elderly Nutrition Pilot Demonstration: Final Evaluation Design
Author(s): Merrile Sing
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Discusses the considerations for evaluating the impacts of the Elderly Nutrition Demonstrations.
Date: 03 / 2005

Food Stamp Program's Elderly Nutrition Pilot Demonstration: Initial Evaluation Design
Author(s): Merrile Sing
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Examines the low participation rates in the Food Stamp Program by poor elderly individuals.
Date: 03 / 2005

Food Stamps and Obesity: Ironic Twist or Complex Puzzle?
Author(s): Michele Ver Ploeg, Lisa Mancino, Biing-Hwan Lin
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Presents overview of possible relationship between food stamp participation and obesity.
Journal citation: Amber Waves
Date: 02 / 2006

Food Stamps Make America Stronger
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Provides the food stamp toll-free hotline number, state office food stamp phone numbers, income limits, and more.
Date: 09 / 2007

Fruit, Veggie School Snack Experiment Results Show Promise for Reducing Youth Obesity
Sponsoring organization: Indiana State Office of Rural Health
Results of a demonstration project by the USDA.
Journal citation: Indiana - Express Pages: 1
Date: 04 / 2003

Health and Nutrition of Hispanic Migrant and Seasonal Farm Workers
Author(s): Katherine L. Cason, Anastasia Snyder, Leif Jensen
Sponsoring organization: Center for Rural Pennsylvania
Describes the health and food security issues facing Hispanic migrant and seasonal farm workers in rural Pennsylvania. Includes information on barriers to health care access and barriers to good nutrition.
Date: 11 / 2004

Homeless, Runaway and Migrant Children are Now Automatically Eligible for Free School Meals
Sponsoring organization: Food Research and Action Center
Describes a provision of the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, which makes migrant, homeless and runaway children and youth automatically eligible for free school breakfast and lunch.
Date: 08 / 2004

Household Food Security in the United States, 2005
Author(s): Mark Nord, Margaret Andrews, Steven Carlson
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Provides the most recent statistics on the food security of U.S. households, as well as on how much they spent for food and the extent to which food-insecure households participated in Federal and community food assistance programs.
Date: 12 / 2005

Household Food Security in the United States, 2006
Author(s): Mark Nord, Margaret Andrews, Steven Carlson
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Presents statistics on households’ food security, food expenditures, and use of food and nutrition assistance programs for 2006.
Date: 11 / 2007

Informing Food and Nutrition Assistance Policy: 10 Years of Research at ERS
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Highlights some of the key research conducted during the program’s first decade.
Date: 12 / 2007

Innovative WIC Practices: Profiles of 20 Programs
Author(s): Anne Gordon, Heather Hartline-Grafton, Renée Nogales
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Describes 20 state and local WIC (Women, Infants and Children) programs that address issues such as breastfeeding promotion, nutrition and health education, and service delivery. Includes examples of rural WIC programs.
Date: 06 / 2004

Issues in Food Assistance
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Presents a series of issues briefs that cover issues in food assistance.
Date: 2005

Measuring U.S. Household Food Security
Author(s): Mark Nord
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Contains the results of an annual, nationally representative household food security survey.
Journal citation: Amber Waves
Date: 04 / 2005

Meeting the Child Nutrition Challenges Facing Rural Areas
Sponsoring organization: Food Research and Action Center
Policy brief discussing barriers rural children face to accessing child nutrition programs and steps that could be taken to make child nutrition programs work better for rural communities.

National Meals On Wheels Rolls Out Into Rural Areas
Author(s): Hilary Gibson
Sponsoring organization: Caregiver.com Inc.
Discusses Meals on Wheels and their recent expansion into rural parts of our country due to the ability to offer individually packaged, frozen meals with foods that are simple to reheat as needed and can be ordered a month at a time.
Journal citation: Rural Caregiver Pages: 1
Date: 2005

Nutrition for Individuals with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities
Author(s): Kathleen Humphries, Meg Traci, Tom Seekins
Sponsoring organization: Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities
Nutrition standards of care for use by personal assistants, service providers, healthcare providers, nutrition professionals, and family members.
Date: 10 / 2005

Overweight and Obesity in the South: Prevalence and Related Health Care Costs Among Population Groups
Sponsoring organization: Southern Rural Development Center
Results of a study used to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the Southern regions.
Journal citation: Food Assistance of the South Issue 13
Date: 07 / 2007

Prevention of Obesity in Children and Youth
Sponsoring organization: Institute of Medicine
Discusses a study assessing the nature of childhood obesity in the United States and makes recommendations.
Date: 09 / 2004

Profiles of Participants in the National School Lunch Program: Data from Two National Surveys
Author(s): Constance Newman, Katherine Ralston
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Reports new estimates of NSLP participant characteristics using two national surveys: the 2001 Panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation and the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Date: 08 / 2006

Rates of Food Insecurity and Hunger Unchanged in Rural Households
Author(s): Mark Nord
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Reports on rates of food insecurity and hunger in non-metro areas, with data by region, race/ethnicity, and age.
Journal citation: Rural America Volume 16 Issue 4 Pages: 42-47
Date: 2002

Rural America Depends on the Food Stamp Program to Make Ends Meet
Author(s): Kristin Smith, Priscilla Salant
Sponsoring organization: Carsey Institute
Discusses how the federal Food Stamp Program benefits the most vulnerable and needy populations, including significant numbers of rural children, disabled and elderly persons, and low-income working families.
Date: 2005

Rural Food Access Patterns: Elderly Open-Country and In-Town Residents
Sponsoring organization: Iowa State University
Examines how rural households in two high poverty Iowa counties access food for daily living. Discusses grocery store consolidation, which has resulted in the loss of many rural small town grocery stores.
Date: 06 / 2004

Rural Healthy People 2010: Nutrition and Overweight Concerns in Rural Areas
Author(s): Tom Tai-Seale, Coleman Chandler
Sponsoring organization: Southwest Rural Health Research Center
Addresses rural health issues associated with the Healthy People 2010 focus area on nutrition and overweight.
Date: 2003

Rural Healthy People 2010: Nutrition and Overweight Concerns in Rural Areas: A Literature Review
Author(s): Tom Tai-Seale, Coleman Chandler
Sponsoring organization: Southwest Rural Health Research Center
Detailed literature review of rural health issues associated with the Healthy People 2010 focus area on nutrition and overweight.
Date: 2003

Rural Hunger (Issue Paper)
Sponsoring organization: America's Second Harvest
Discusses the conditions that contribute to rural hunger and the difficulties inherent in living in a rural community - lack of access to services and products sometimes as basic as food.
Date: 02 / 2003

Social Assistance Programs and Outcomes: Food Assistance in the Context of Welfare Reform
Author(s): Sonya Kostova Huffman, Helen H. Jensen
Sponsoring organization: Center for Agricultural and Rural Development
Examines the interaction among food stamps, labor force participation, and food insecurity status of low-income households under different program designs and economic conditions.
Date: 06 / 2003

Spotlight on Rural Research: A Hungry Irony
Author(s): Thomas D. Rowley
Sponsoring organization: Rural Assistance Center
Discusses research stating that some U.S. households are unable to acquire enough food for all household members due to money or other resources for food. Mentions USDA food assistance programs that are available.
Journal citation: Rural Monitor Volume 10 Issue 4
Date: 04 / 2004

Starved for Access: Life in Rural America's Food Deserts
Author(s): Lois Wright Morton, Troy C. Blanchard
Sponsoring organization: Rural Sociological Society
Discusses rural areas which are considered "food deserts", areas with limited, if any, grocery stores.
Journal citation: Rural Realities Volume 1 Issue 4
Date: 03 / 2007

State of the States 2005: A Profile of Food and Nutrition Programs Across the Nation
Sponsoring organization: Food Research and Action Center
Provides food stamp profiles in each state, discusses child, school, and adult nutrition programs, and highlights how each state is meeting the needs of its hungry people. Includes statistics and data.
Date: 02 / 2005

Strengthening Our Nation's Food Assistance Programs
Sponsoring organization: Southern Rural Development Center
Highlights important and practical contributions made by RIDGE researchers through studies that have focused on providing access to healthy foods at affordable prices, improving nutrition to build a healthy workforce, and responding to diverse needs.
Date: 2007

Struggling To Feed the Family: What Does It Mean To Be Food Insecure?
Author(s): Mark Nord, Mark Prell
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Provides and overview of food insecurity, how it is measured, and the impact that food insecurity has.
Journal citation: Amber Waves
Date: 06 / 2007

Transitional Food Stamps: Background and Implementation Issues
Author(s): Dorothy Rosenbaum
Sponsoring organization: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Discusses an option for states to provide a transitional 5-month period of food stamp benefits to food stamp recipients leaving welfare without reapplication. Discusses the benefits of this option and implementation issues.
Date: 11 / 2003

Understanding Food Security Data and Methodology
Author(s): Bryan Hall
Sponsoring organization: Center on Hunger and Poverty
Explains how to interpret, analyze, and properly use U.S. Department of Agriculture food security data.
Date: 03 / 2004

What Factors Account for State-to-State Differences in Food Security?
Author(s): Judi Bartfeld, Rachel Dunifon, Mark Nord, Steven Carlson
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Discusses the prevalence of food security in a state, including characteristics of households, income, employment, and household structure, average wages, cost of housing, levels of participation in food assistance programs, and tax policies.
Date: 11 / 2006

WIC Reauthorization: Opportunities for Improving the Nutritional Status of Women, Infants, and Children
Author(s): Harriette Fox, Margaret McManus, Harry Schmidt
Sponsoring organization: National Health Policy Forum
Examines the main reform issues affecting WIC.
Date: 08 / 2003

Journals

Amber Waves
Covers food, farming, natural resources, and rural America. Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service

Organizations

America's Second Harvest
Nonprofit/Foundation
Nation's largest hunger relief organization. Network of 200+ food banks and food-rescue programs. Includes a directory of food banks by zip code or state.

Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC)
National organization
Dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food for all people at all times.

Family-to-Family
Nonprofit/Foundation
A hunger relief program aimed at helping profoundly poor and hungry rural American families. Family-to-Family links families with more to families with much less.

Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)
National organization
Works to improve public policies to eradicate hunger and undernutrition in the United States. Serves as the hub of an anti-hunger network of thousands of individuals and agencies across the country.

Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR)
Commercial
Conducts research to support decisions about our nation's most pressing social policy problems. Past research includes studies of health care, welfare, education, employment, nutrition, and early childhood policies and programs in the United States.

Meals on Wheels Association of America (MOWAA)
National organization
Works to bring meals to seniors in need including men and women who are elderly, homebound, disabled, frail, or at risk. Is the oldest and largest organization in the United States representing those who provide meal services to people in need.

Office of Family Assistance (OFA)
Federal government
Oversees the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program. Provides assistance and work opportunities to needy families by granting states the federal funds and wide flexibility to develop and implement their own welfare programs.

School Nutrition Association (SNA)
National organization
Recognized as the authority on school nutrition, a national, nonprofit professional organization representing more than 55,000 members who provide high-quality, low-cost meals to students across the country.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Federal government
Offers numerous funding opportunities such as Rural Economic Development Grants, Rural Business Opportunity Grants, Farm Labor Grants plus others.

USDA Food and Nutrition Service (USDA FNS)
Federal government
Increases food security and reduces hunger in partnership with cooperating organizations by providing children and low-income people access to food, a healthful diet, and nutrition education in a manner that supports American agriculture and inspires public confidence.

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
Federal government
Protects the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age five by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.

Terms & Acronyms

Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) Allows for the distribution of food stamp benefits via a plastic debit card. These cards can be used at the point-of-sale terminals or retailers authorized by USDA to accept food stamp benefits.

Food Gleaning Practice of gathering the extra crops in the field after a harvest and donating them to disadvantaged individuals.

Food Insecurity Limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food. At times during the year, unable to acquire enough food to meet the needs of all family members due to insufficient money or other resources for food.

Food Recovery Collection of wholesome food for distribution to the poor and hungry.

Food Rescue Collection of prepared foods from the food service industry.

Food Security Having access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy life. Ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies.

Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services (FNS) Federal agency that administers the Food Stamp program.

High Food Security No reported indications of food-access problems or limitations in the household.

Low Food Security Food-insecure households which obtained enough food to avoid substantially disrupting their eating patterns or reducing food intake, by using a variety of coping strategies, such as eating less varied diets, participating in Federal food assistance programs, or getting emergency food from community food pantries.

Marginal Food Security One or two reported indications - typically of anxiety over food sufficiency or shortage of food in the house. Little or no indication of changes in diets or food intake.

Nonperishable Food Collection Collection of processed foods with long shelf lives.

Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) Known as "welfare reform." PRWORA implemented a number of significant changes in the welfare system such as the imposition of time limits and work requirements on recipients, and the devolution of welfare program administration authority to state governments.

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) Provides block grants to states to administer programs to assist needy families.

Very Low Food Security Food-insecure households in which normal eating patterns of one or more household members are disrupted and food intake is reduced at times during the year because of insufficient money or other resources for food. In previous reports, these households were described as "food insecure with hunger."

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Supplemental Nutrition Program which serves to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, & children up to age five who are at nutritional risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.

Success Stories

Arizona - Kaibeto Health Services Grant funds established a school-based frontier primary care clinic, offered training to local first-response units and began programs to promote increased physical activity and better nutrition to the poverty stricken Navaho population base.

Kentucky - Kid Power The focus of this program was to enroll eligible children and educate their families about healthy nutrition, proper diet, exercise, and the importance of weight management in improving their overall health.

Vermont - Springfield Family Center, Inc. USDA Rural Development funds helped this not-for-profit community food pantry and emergency services center successfully apply for a $48,050 Community Facilities Grant to replace their old and inefficient furnace, thus allowing the center to continue to provide its services without added heating costs.

Wastefreelunches.org Lists success stories, submitted by teachers, administrators, parents, and various environmental organizations from all across the United States, which show what schools and others are doing to reduce lunchtime waste

What's New
What's new RSS
About RSS Feeds

Page last updated 5/5/2008
Topic last reviewed 9/10/2007

Events
Aug 26 - 28, 2008
Meals on Wheels 2008 Conference
Meals on Wheels Association of America
Omni William Penn Hotel
Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:
  703.548.5558
  mowaa@mowaa.org


About this Page
Credits

Thanks goes to: Mark Nord, Economic Research Service, USDA

Alexis Steines, School Nutrition Association and

Laura Griffin, USDA Food Stamp Program

Please send comments to:
Mary Reinertson-Sand
mary@raconline.org

Past contributors:
Pamela Friedman, The Finance Project



Suggest a resource for this page.