The University of Kentucky's Center for Poverty Research released a discussion paper that explores whether the safety net reduces food insecurity for families and children who receive any of the five major safety net programs: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Medicaid. The results indicated that the various safety net programs do improve food security.

The Institute for Research on Poverty released a discussion paper exploring the reasoning behind why some low-income Americans do not capitalize on nongovernmental free food assistance programs in their communities. The study focused on data collected from 63 in-depth interviews with low-income residents from San Francisco who did not use this available assistance. Overall, the report indicated that respondents did not feel that the free food assistance outweighed the psychological costs involved with accepting assistance. Such psychological costs include moral objections with accepting food from others and the emotional toll of accepting assistance.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA) released a letter that discusses the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Summer Food Service Program, a program that ensures that children have access to meals when school is not in session.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service released a report that examines the effects of disabilities on household food security. The research focuses on adults who are unable to work due to their disabilities and adults with disabilities that do not necessarily prevent employment. Results indicated that food insecurity was more prevalent among households with working-age adults with disabilities.

In April 2014, the Institute for Research on Poverty released a discussion paper that explores the receipt of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) among low-income households. The research is based on data from the first two waves of the Michigan Recession and Recovery Survey (MRRS), a panel survey of working-age adults in the Detroit Metropolitan Area. The study examined how low-income families in the Detroit Metropolitan Area combined SNAP with other forms of public assistance during the Great Recession and analyzed the relationship between the receipt of SNAP assistance and food shopping behaviors.

The Center for Law and Social Policy released a policy brief detailing certain additions to the recently passed 2014 Farm Bill that reauthorized the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Under the updated legislation, low-income college students are eligible for SNAP benefits. Even after accounting for all financial aid, many low-income college students have thousands of dollars of unmet need, even when they attend low-cost institutions such as community colleges. This need often leads students to drop out of college, or to work so many hours that it interferes with their attendance and success in classes. SNAP benefits will now help low-income college students meet their basic needs so they can afford and focus on their education.

The National Poverty Center released a working paper discussing low-income families and their interactions with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and the Food Stamp program. This working paper combines State-level policy data with rich data on a national sample of low-income families to investigate family and State-level predictors of TANF and Food Stamp receipt. Two key findings are discussed: 1) families experiencing more economic hardship are more likely to receive benefits, and 2) States' coverage is associated with families' receipt of TANF, but not Food Stamps. The paper closes with a discussion on the implications for policy and research.

The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) released a report that provides a gender analysis of national and State poverty and income data for 2012, released by the Census Bureau in September 2013. The National Women's Law Center supplies this analysis because little information broken out by gender is available directly from the Census Bureau's series of reports titled "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States." The report found that poverty rates among women, like poverty rates overall, remained at historically high levels last year. Women's poverty rates were once again substantially above the poverty rates for men. The data also show that income supports such as Food Stamps/SNAP benefits kept millions of Americans out of poverty last year. The wage gap remained unchanged in 2012, with women working full time, year round typically earning 77 cents to every dollar paid to their male counterparts – the same level at which they have remained for a decade.

Brookings Center on Children and Families and Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity held an event on December 5, 2012 to examine the impact of the election on programs affecting the poor like Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as well as the Earned Tax Credit (EITC). Answers to this and related questions were discussed by a panel of experts.