To increase its understanding of the reasons for nonparticipation, the Food and Nutrition Service(FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) contracted with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR) to conduct a study of nonparticipation by low-income working and elderly households, entitled Reaching the Working Poor and Poor Elderly. This report summarizes what was learned and offers recommendations for how a national survey of the reasons for nonparticipation in the FSP should be designed and fielded.
Less than one-half of working households and less than two-fifths of elderly households that are thought to be eligible for food stamps actually received them in 1994. One way of increasing our understanding of the reasons for these low rates of participation in the Food Stamp Program would be to conduct a national survey of nonparticipants who are eligible for the program. This report discusses our experiences conducting a pretest of this survey and our recommendations for the design and fielding of a larger national survey about the reasons for nonparticipation in the FSP.
The Food Stamp Program helps needy families purchase food so that they can maintain a nutritious diet. Families are eligible for the program if their financial resources fall below certain income and asset thresholds. However, not all eligible families participate in the program. Some choose not to, while others do not know they are eligible. The participation rate—the ratio of the number of participants to the number of eligibles—reveals the degree to which eligible families participate.
This report responds to PL 105-379, which mandated the USDA examine options for the design, development, implementation and operation of a national database to track participation in federal means-tested public assistance programs.
This report examines data from the Current Population Survey in order to analyze trends in free and reduced price certification and participation in the National School Lunch Program during the period of 1993-1997. The data indicate that free certifications for NSLP as a percentage of CPS estimated eligibles have been increasing for several years and was 118% in 1997 (latest available).
The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), which administers the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), asked Mathematica Policy Research to examine more closely Medicaid's role in adjunct eligible for WIC and do not have to show further proof of income to qualify.
Interest, research, and expenditures on dietary supplements are growing very fast. Americans spent $8.2 billion in 1995 for vitamins, minerals, herbs and botanicals, and sports nutrition products. About half of all Americans reported at least some use of vitamins and minerals in response to recent surveys. The general goal of the study is to examine existing data that bear on a diverse set of pertinent issues.
In the past, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has relied on a series of large surveys to gather and compare information on food expenditures and food consumption among participants and non-participants to better understand the impacts of the Food Stamp Program (FSP) on the diet and nutritional status of program participants. Studies based on survey data, however, have a number of drawbacks, including the time and expense of collecting the survey data, sampling error, response bias, errors in respondent recall, and misinformation about what may have been purchased or consumed.
One activity that reflects USDA’s commitment to nutrition promotion is the development of state nutrition networks. Since October 1995, FNS has awarded cooperative agreements to 22 states to create nutrition networks that would develop innovative, large-scale and sustainable approaches to providing nutrition education to low-income families that participate or are eligible to participate in the Food Stamp Program.
The advance report of preliminary findings for the period 1995-1998 introduces the second installment in the annual series, Measuring Food Security in the United States.