As part of the Metropolitan Policy Program through the Brookings Institution, this paper analyzes poverty across cities and suburbs as a result of the recession. Since December 2007, 6.6 million people have become unemployed, and the need for assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly, food stamps) has reached a high. The author provides an analysis of unemployment and food stamps as indicators of poverty to understand how poverty across these areas has unevenly increased.

This study, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and its subcontractors, American Management Systems, Inc. and the George Washington University Center for Health Services Research and Policy, was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to identify strategies states and local welfare offices are using to promote participation in food stamps, Medicaid and SCHIP and the ongoing challenges they face in providing support to working families. (author abstract)

Congress recently passed legislation mandating that food prescribed in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA’s) Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) be provided using electronic benefit transfer (EBT), which operates like a debit card. Ten State agencies currently provide WIC benefits using EBT, and many other States are in the process of implementing EBT technology in the WIC program. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, reauthorizing USDA’s child nutrition and WIC programs, requires that all States use EBT technology by 2020. Utilizing EBT technology will enable WIC moms to purchase WIC foods without the visibility of paper vouchers. The EBT system will also provide data to WIC State agencies on each food item purchased so they can better manage food costs through informed food package decisions and rebates on infant formula. EBT will also assist retailers in efficiently completing WIC transactions.

This paper is from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and shows why collaboration and coordination across programs is critical in terms of policy, procedure, and data utilization. Designed for practitioners, authors discuss the challenges to implement this process and how to overcome them. Authors focus on Medicaid and SNAP, but also provide examples of how to include TANF, child care, and other programs in such an effort to better support working families.

From the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, this report provides findings from the implementation evaluation of Head Start programs that participated in the "I Am Moving, I Am Learning" trainings. From the programs that participated in the spring 2006, program administrators, classroom teachers, and home visitors across many programs reported that they had increased children’s movement time and improved the food choices available to children.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities issued this report on revised USDA policy for free school meals for children. Under the new policy, if anyone in a household is a recipient of benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP: formerly the Food Stamp Program), the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance program, or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), all children in the household are categorically eligible for free school meals. This policy change will help an estimated 2.5 million children who have been missed in the enrollment process receive free school lunches.

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, this report offers information on how states can use federal stimulus dollars provided through the TANF Emergency Fund to provide emergency food assistance to needy families through food banks, agencies, or other distribution sites, or to supplement USDA’s Summer Food Service Programs. Such additional funds can support food networks in supplementing the food and nutrition for low-income families across the country.

From the National Center for Children in Poverty, this report analyzes the effectiveness of America's work supports, such as earned income tax credits, public health insurance, child care assistance, and food stamps. For families, work supports can close the gap between low earnings and basic expenses, as working more does not always pay as families lose eligibility for critical supports.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities authored this report on the effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for individual families. State-level data show that the Recovery Act has protected many families from poverty by raising incomes through its focus on tax credits, access to food stamps, and other measures. Researchers estimate that 6 million families were kept out of poverty by the Act in 2009.

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, this issue brief provides an overview of the food stamp program. In 2014, the program helped more than 46 million low-income Americans to afford a nutrionally adequate diet in a typical month. This piece provides an overview of eligibility requirements, the available benefits, the application procedures, and current food stamp caseload information. The program not only encourages work, but helps low-wage workers move above the poverty line, while also encouraging nutritional dietary intake for children.