Food Assistance and Nutrition Programs: Fiscal 2010 Research Funding Opportunities

Weekday and Weekend Eating: Assessing the Effect of School Meals
Karla Hanson
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

This project will assess the effects of the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program on the prevalence of weekend "hunger" (as measured by inadequate caloric intake and compromised diet quality) through an innovative use of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data from 2003 to 2008. The project will compare weekday and weekend eating for the same individuals, thereby controlling for unobserved differences across individuals in order to examine the prevalence of weekend "hunger" among school-age children, identify the characteristics of children that are most likely to experience inadequate food quantity on the weekend, and analyze how participation in school meals is associated with weekend hunger.

Cooperative Research Agreement: $125,000

WIC, Food Insecurity, and Child Health in Massachusetts
Elizabeth Metallinos-Katsaras
Simmons College, Boston, MA

This project will examine how the length of time that an individual participates in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) may affect changes in household food security status for different race/ethnic groups. The project will also examine the consequences of household food insecurity in early life on infancy and child health indicators. The study will use a unique longitudinal Massachusetts WIC dataset that links 8 years of maternal and child WIC data, submitted as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Pregnancy and Pediatric Surveillance Systems, for participants who received WIC services between August 2001 and November 2009.

Grant: $200,000

Dynamics of Childhood Obesity
Rusty Tchernis
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

This project will examine the evolution of child weight from birth through eighth grade, the persistence of overweight, and the role of school meals and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program) in altering the dynamics of obesity. The project will use several data sources, including the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort and Kindergarten Class (ECLS-B, ECLS-K); Census 2000 data on income, poverty, unemployment, property values, and education levels; and county-level SNAP data.

Cooperative Research Agreement: $225,000

Child Well-Being in Families with Job Loss, Divorce, or Separation: The Effects of Food Assistance Programs
Sheldon Danziger
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

This project will examine the effects of participation in the two largest food assistance programs-the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program) and the National School Lunch Program-on the well-being of children in low-income families that experience adverse economic shocks, such as job loss, divorce, or separation. Food security will be the primary measure of child well-being to be studied, but child's health status and health care use and household stability and material well-being will also be examined. The project, using data from the 2004 and 2008 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), will be one of the first studies to use nationally representative panel data gathered during the "Great Recession" to focus on the extent to which food assistance programs buffer the effects of adverse economic shocks on the food security and well-being of children.

Cooperative Research Agreement: $140,000

Children of Immigrants' Food Insecurity and SNAP Receipt
Heather Koball
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., Princeton, NJ

This study will examine the relationship between the food security of children of immigrants and their participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program). As a result of changes in SNAP eligibility policies, many children of immigrants are eligible for the program even when their parents are not. This study will assess: (1) the effects of changes in SNAP eligibility on SNAP participation and benefits in immigrant households with children, (2) the characteristics of immigrant households that are associated with SNAP participation, and (3) the effects of SNAP participation on food insecurity among children of immigrants. Data will come from the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS) and the CPS Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS-ASEC).

Assistance Type Cooperative Agreement: $180,000

WIC Food Package Revisions: Impact on Food Purchases and Access to Healthy Foods
Tatiana Andreyeva
Yale University, New Haven, CT

This project will assess the impact of the newly implemented food package revisions in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on participant purchases of major WIC food categories (fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lower fat milk). The study will use scanner data from a major supermarket chain operating in Connecticut and Western Massachusetts. The project will also conduct store inventories to assess changes in the food environment (such as availability, variety, and prices of WIC foods) 18-20 months after the revisions, and compare the results to similar assessments conducted prior to implementation of the WIC food package revisions and 1 year after the revisions. The study will also identify store and community characteristics that modify the impact of the WIC food package revisions on access to healthy foods.

Grant: $265,000

Local Economic Conditions, Food Assistance, and Food Insecurity Among Households With Children
Qi Zhang
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA

This project will examine how local economic conditions affect participation in food assistance programs and food insecurity among low-income households with children. Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) will be merged with multiple data sources, such as Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS), Regional Economic Accounts (REA), The American Chamber of Commerce Researchers' Association (ACCRA) Cost of Living Data, Fair Market Rents (FMRs), County Business Patterns (CBP), National Congregation Study (NCS), Statistics of Income (SOI) Zip Code Data, and Current Population Survey (CPS).

Cooperative Research Agreement: $185,000

Food Security and Access to Retail Food Establishments Among Emergency Food Program Recipients
James Mabli
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., Princeton, NJ

This study will (1) examine the locations of emergency food programs in relation to retail food store locations and local population characteristics and (2) analyze the relationship between household food security and access to both retail food stores and emergency food outlets, while accounting for variation in demographic, economic, and family characteristics (including participation in most of the major Federal food nutrition and assistance programs). The study will use data from the 2009 Hunger in America (HIA) survey-the most recent and largest national survey of emergency food programs and their clients.

Assistance Type Cooperative Agreement: $180,000

Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs
David R. Just
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

The Center will facilitate new and innovative research on the application of behavioral economic theory to child nutrition program operations and activities, leading to program improvements that will benefit children's diets and health; broaden social scientist participation in such research, and disseminate research findings to key stakeholder groups, including other researchers, policy and program officials, and the general public.

Using Nudges From Cafeterias and Parents To Encourage Healthy Food Choices at School
Karen Cullen
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

This project will evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention based on behavioral economics theory that encourages students to make healthy food choices in the school cafeteria by connecting the cafeteria and the home, via "nudges. Specifically, participating school cafeterias in Houston, TX, will market targeted healthy foods via messaging and presentations, and foodservice staff will encourage children's selection of the targeted foods as the children go through the serving line. Coordinated parent communications about the lunch menus and targeted foods will be made available via electronic technology (e.g., website, Facebook, Twitter).

Grant: $175,000

Incentivizing Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Elementary Schools
Gregory Madden
Utah State University, Logan, UT

This project will evaluate a school-based incentives program designed using behavioral economics theory and its effectiveness in increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in a sample of Utah elementary schoolchildren. The incentives program conjointly uses role models and rewards to encourage repeated tasting of fruits and vegetables, with escalating goals designed to gradually increase fruit and vegetable consumption and establish new eating habits.

Grant: $350,000

Can Default Options and Incentives Improve Food Choices at School?
Joseph Price
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

This project will test the effectiveness of behavioral economics-based interventions that employ small, feasible changes in school food choice options to improve children's food choices. Examples include using default options, providing small incentives for consuming fruits and vegetables, increasing the variety of fruit and vegetable options, changing fruit and vegetable location to increase visibility and accessibility, altering the choices available in vending machines or school stores, and allowing children to consume fruits and vegetables earlier in the day. The experimental interventions will take place in several Utah schools.

Grant: $150,000

Nudging High School Students Toward Better School Lunch Food Choices: Planning for Behavioral Economic Interventions in West Virginia
Cheryl Brown
West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV

This project will identify potential behavioral economic interventions to promote healthy food choices by students in West Virginia high schools. It will assess the current school lunch environment in a sample of high school cafeterias in three counties across northern West Virginia. Findings will be used to determine acceptable, appropriate interventions that could be implemented in high schools to test how the use of behavioral economic principles could influence students to choose healthier options. A proposal for funding studies of behavioral economic interventions will be developed, as will a planning template that can be used at high schools throughout the state.

Grant: $30,000

Testing a Food Choice Innovation for Middle School Cafeterias
Priscilla Connors
University of North Texas, Denton, TX

This project will develop and pilot test an innovative strategy, based on behavioral economics principles, for encouraging middle school students to make more nutritious choices from lunchtime cafeteria options. Researchers will collect data on menus, food choices, consumption, and plate waste in selected Texas middle school cafeterias, and will observe the choice architecture in those cafeterias. Data will be used to identify potential strategies to encourage nutritious choices and decrease waste while maintaining cafeteria revenues and minimally affecting cafeteria operations. The most promising innovative strategy will be selected and pilot tested in two middle school cafeterias.

Grant: $30,000

Drawing Attention to Healthy Choices With Lighting
Ann Ferris
University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT

This project will assess how successfully cafeteria lighting can be manipulated makes fruit and vegetables stand out and change student food choice behavior. This pilot study will be implemented over a four month period in two Connecticut middle schools matched for cafeteria layout and similar food offerings using a crossover research design. Cafeteria data on food selection will be used to assess effectiveness.

Grant: $30,000

Using Positive Deviance Principles To Identify Best Practices of Choice Architecture and Build Research Capacity With School Food Authorities
Deana Hildebrand
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK

This project will draw on behavioral economics theories to identify affordable, acceptable, and sustainable choice-architecture-based strategies to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among middle school students. It will gather information on current relevant practices in Oklahoma middle schools; compile an inventory of successful choice-architecture-based methods of improving food choices; and conduct a statewide forum with school foodservice professionals to introduce them to the use of choice architecture in school cafeteria settings and establish a network of school foodservice staff interested in testing choice-architecture-based innovations in school cafeterias.

Grant: $30,000

Smarter Choices Through Nutritional Report Cards
David Just
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

This project will use behavioral economics theory of informational nudges and social norm effects to examine if nutritional report cards sent home to parents influence the amount of foods and type of foods that are selected by elementary school children. Nutritional report cards will use school cafeteria point of sale data to provide information on food selections children make at school. The study will take place in two elementary schools, with a treatment class receiving a weekly report to parents on items purchased by the child as well as the amount purchased relative to others within the class; the comparison class will not receive the weekly report.

Grant: $30,000

Menu Modification for Lincoln Parish Child Nutrition Program
Mary Murimi
Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA

This project will test whether strategies based on principles of behavioral economics can increase student acceptance of nutritionally improved school lunch menus. Current school menus will be modified to meet standards based on the USDA School Meals Initiative and the Federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Baseline student acceptance of those menus will be determined. A three-week pilot study will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of selected strategies based on behavioral economics theory in facilitating student acceptance of the nutritionally improved menu.

Grant: $30,000

Developing Research Capacity To Test Behavioral Economic Interventions in Child Nutrition Programs
Marla Reicks
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

This project will support development of a collaborative team with diverse disciplinary backgrounds to pursue experimental studies in child foodservice settings that apply behavioral economic strategies to improve the healthfulness of children's food choices and diets. The first team activity will be a pilot study of the effect of portion sizes of fruits and vegetables served with school lunch on children's intake. The team will also develop proposals for future projects.

Grant: $30,000

Improving School Lunch Decisions With Fast Lane Meal Deals
Amit Sharma
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

This project will develop a "fast-service-lane" strategy for school cafeteria service that offers "meal deals" that bundle a healthy lunch choice. The project will investigate the effectiveness of this behavioral economics-based strategy of offering time incentives for healthy lunch choices and assess costs and benefits for school food services.

Grant: $40,000

Children's Food Choices: Understanding Defaults
Melayne McInnes
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

This project will use behavioral economics theories and methods to explore the short-term and long-term effects of changing defaults on children's food choices and preferences, compared with interventions that seek to improve knowledge about healthy choices or provide financial incentives.

Grant: $25,000

Influence of Developmental Differences on Children's Responses to Information on Foods
Sean Cash
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

This project will build on current research on behavioral economics to investigate how the response of schoolchildren to food attributes is influenced by individual differences in cognitive and language ability, executive functioning, dietary knowledge, and age, and the implications for designing policies to improve dietary health.

Grant: $25,000

Is Healthy Eating Viral? Improving Understanding of How Social Networks Can Be Used To Influence School Food Choices
Helen Jensen
Iowa State University, Ames, IA

This project will draw on behavioral economics research to investigate how social networks can be used to influence children's school food choices through imitation of nutritional habits, social learning, and social influence (adopting friends' preferences). The study will develop and pilot test a plan for investigating effects of social networks on school food choices, especially for middle and high school students.

Grant: $25,000

Economic Research on the Joint Contributions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Unemployment Insurance to the Nation's Social Safety Net
Jane Staveley
University of Baltimore/Jacob France Institute, Baltimore, MD

This project will use linked administrative data files in five States to address two critical issues: (a) the dynamics of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation among low-income households with workers; and (b) the interactions between receipt of SNAP benefits and State Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits, especially during the current recession. The project is a consortium of five State-based research institutions that will be analyzing data from Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and Texas.

Grant: $500,000

Joint Participation in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Unemployment Insurance in Florida
Colleen Heflin
University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

This project will use linked administrative data files from the State of Florida to address two critical issues: (a) the dynamics of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation among low-income households with workers; and (b) the interactions between receipt of SNAP benefits and State Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits, especially during the current recession. Such analyses can provide information that will enable increased program efficiency by identifying factors affecting households' decisions to apply for SNAP benefits.

Grant: $107,254

Joint Contributions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Unemployment Insurance, and Cash Assistance to California's Social Safety Net
Caroline Danielson
Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, CA

This project will use linked administrative data files from the State of California to address two critical issues: (a) the dynamics of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation among low-income households with workers; and (b) the interactions between receipt of SNAP benefits and State Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits, especially during the current recession. Such analyses can provide information that will enable increased program efficiency by identifying factors affecting households' decisions to apply for SNAP benefits.

Grant: $97,961