The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the nation's largest domestic food and nutrition assistance program for low-income Americans. SNAP-Education, commonly referred to as SNAP-Ed, is the nutrition education arm of SNAP benefits. SNAP-Ed aims to help individuals stretch their food budgets wisely while working to make healthy…

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is the nation's first federal nutrition education program for low-income populations. Without question, accelerating equity in programming has long been a priority of EFNEP. Historically underserved populations with limited financial resources are often people of color and at increased risk…

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is the nation's first nutrition education program and remains at the forefront of educational efforts to reduce nutrition insecurity of low-income families and youth today. Funded by the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), EFNEP supports program participants' efforts…

Consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables helps to reduce childhood obesity and improves academic achievement and attendance. However, providing fresh fruits and vegetables is challenging for some schools due to cost, administrative burden, and concern for food waste. To address these challenges, the Fruit and Vegetable Access for Children Act…

"Children's Budget 2022" finds that the share of federal spending on children climbed to a historic 11.98% of the U.S. budget in FY 2022, producing remarkable declines in child poverty, hunger and the rate of children without health insurance. The report finds that the share of U.S. domestic and international spending on children rose…

Afterschool programs have continued to grow in sophistication, increase their offerings and improve quality. As the role of afterschool programs has evolved from primarily providing a safe and supervised environment to a resource that provides a host of supports for their students, programs have become valuable partners in helping students reach…

Afterschool programs continue to make advances when it comes to providing students with nutritious foods, keeping them physically fit and promoting health. Such programs have great potential to help prevent obesity and instill lifelong healthy habits, serving more than 10 million children and youth across America, with more than 19 million more…

The Youth Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is one of the United States Department of Agriculture's hallmark nutrition education programs for limited-resource youth. The objective of this study was to gather opinions from experts in EFNEP and related content areas to identify costs, effects (impacts), and related instruments to…

Geographical, economic, social and cultural barriers to accessing services in rural areas are widely reported. Less widely discussed are dilemmas posed by individual and community reluctance to address sensitive health issues. This article, focusing on the highly sensitive area of mental health, and employing a participatory action approach,…

The number of overweight and obese children and adolescents has reached epidemic proportions, and recent federal surveys show that most school meals do not meet federal nutrition guidelines. Accordingly, there is growing interest in the nutritional quality of foods available in U.S. schools--and in the role of the government in helping to make…

Observes that adequate health care is essential to every child's development and achievement. Discusses some of the indicators of child health and the U.S. Surgeon General's goals for childhood health care. Describes means of protecting child health and what the federal and state government role should be. (SG)

This paper proposes a new bipartisan initiative to strengthen the effectiveness of U.S. social programs by focusing funds within each program on research-proven projects, practices, and strategies ("interventions"). The proposal seeks neither an increase nor decrease in overall program funding; rather, its central aim is to maximize the…

To help improve nutrition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides nutrition education through five of its programs: Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP); Food Stamp Program (FSP); Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); National School Lunch Program (NLP); and Child and Adult Care…

Healthy Start is a 5-year program that encourages community-based strategies for reducing infant mortality. This report addresses Congressional concerns of preliminary evaluation results reported by the press concerning the program's efficacy. The report strives to answer three Congressional concerns: (1) the plan for the national program…

This report describes the growth of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) education programs and identifies areas needing improvement. The purpose of the extensive survey was to provide information on the program of school human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) education efforts led by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Results revealed that…