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.

This research includes 27 cities and the status of hunger and homelessness. The research is based on information from the cities on the demand for emergency food and shelter and the capacity to handle the need, the causes of hunger and homelessness, programs to combat hunger and homelessness, the availability of affordable housing, and the outlook for the future.

This research includes 25 cities and the status of hunger and homelessness from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The research is based on information from the cities on the demand for emergency food and shelter and the capacity to handle the need, the causes of hunger and homelessness, programs to combat hunger and homelessness, the availability of affordable housing, and the outlook for the future.

Since welfare reform, there has been a significant decrease in food stamp participation, especially among families moving off welfare. Authors suggest that the low participation may be tied to the fact that families who are able to meet the food needs of their families are unlikely to apply for benefits. This paper offers a new approach to help encourage participation among working families.

Barbara Devaney, Laura Kalb, Ronette Briefel, Teresa Zavitsky-Novak, Nancy Clusen, Paula Ziegler, authors. Features articles related to this study that Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. conducted for Gerber. The Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (FITS) provides a wealth of data on the food and nutrient intakes, background characteristics, growth and development milestones, and feeding patterns and transitions for a nationally representative sample of infants and toddlers.

Authored by Carole Trippe, Liz Schott, Nancy Wemmerus, and Andrew Berwick. This study examines the experiences of four States--Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri, and Ohio--that use the simplified reporting option of the Food Stamp Program; Arizona also uses the transitional benefit option. States reported reduced staff workload, improved client access, and reduced quality control errors with simplified reporting but faced some operational challenges that made realizing the option's full potential difficult.

Authored by Anne Gordon, Heather Hartline-Grafton, and Renee Nogales. Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides supplemental food, nutrition education, and health and social service referrals to low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women, as well as to infants and children younger than five. This study describes a range of innovative practices at 20 State or local WIC agencies focusing on breastfeeding promotion and support, nutrition and health education, and service delivery. For each program, the report provides background information and discusses the source of the innovation, key challenges, implementation lessons learned, evidence of success, and the feasibility of replication.

Authored by Craig Gundersen, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University; Dean Jolliffe, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service; and Laura Tiehen, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. This report, as part of the Working Paper Series of the National Poverty Center (NPC), explores variation in State policies and data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to analyze food insecurity rates between Food Stamp program participants and non-participants.