This bibliography was prepared for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as part of a 12-month assessment that looks at the feasibility of studying the consequences of Hurricane Katrina for the ACF service populations. Authored by the Urban Institute, this piece offers a list of resources that address the human, social, and economic dimensions of the storm.

This study was funded through the Department of Agriculture and provides information on food security in households that participate in the Food Stamp Program (FSP). Using data from the Current Population Survey, researchers found that Food Stamp households have higher at-home food spending and lower away-from-home-spending than comparable non-participants.

This article is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and provides information on food security among low-income households. This research was focused on assessing the extent to which low-income households are willing and able to budget for healthy foods. It was found that households with an income below 130 percent of the poverty line spend less money than higher income households on healthy foods.

Child Trends authored this research brief on food insecurity, which persists in many households across the United States with young children. While food insecurity can cause a number of negative outcomes, overweight is one of the negative consequences for children that experience food insecurity. Utilizing data from the 9-month and 24-month waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), authors examine the indirect links through which food insecurity may affect overweight for infants and toddlers.

This resource from the Urban Institute provides information on asset building among low-income families. Because welfare benefits and food stamps are means tested, assets and income must fall below set limits for families to qualify. This ensures that benefits go to the most needy families; however, asset limits can also discourage asset building for low-income families. Authors review how assets, such as education, a home, a car, or an individual development account (IDA), can be exempted.

This Bulletin from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reviews the characteristics of low-income households with very low food security in 2005. Food security is used to measure how effective nutrition assistance programs are meeting the needs of the population that these programs are meant to serve. As part of the strategic plan, the USDA seeks to reduce the prevalence of very low food security among low-income families.

Thirty-five million Americans face hunger every day, and this study shows the economic costs that hunger has on the population as a whole. This research, from Harvard, Brandeis, and Loyola Universities, shows that Americans pay $90 billion per year for hunger issues in our country. Increasing funding for food stamps and nutrition programs could alleviate hunger in our country, while decreasing the financial burden.

One in twelve people in the United States participate in the FNS-sponsored Food Stamp program. In this report, GAO examined what methods States are utilizing to increase access to the program, results of such methods, and what actions States have taken to maintain program integrity while implementing alternative methods.

Authored by the Institute for Research on Poverty, this resource provides information on how the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) improves infant health. Data show that WIC has modest effects on fetal growth, but there is no relationship between WIC and smoking habits.

Utilizing the National Center for Children in Poverty’s Family Resource Simulator, this article reviews policies in Illinois that support work and self-sufficiency among families. It was found that Illinois is successful in providing adequate family resources, but rewarding progress in the workforce is still a challenge. The Simulator showed that full-time, low-wage workers in Illinois cannot afford basic family necessities—including housing, food, health care, child care, and transportation—without the help of public work supports.