Objectives: COVID-19 caused stark increases in food insecurity. To maintain food provision, policy changes to the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) were instated. This longitudinal study examined (1) food security patterns across the timeline of COVID-19; (2) the relationship among food security patterns, NSLP/SNAP use, and parent feeding practices; and (3) parent perceptions of NSLP/SNAP policy changes.
Methods: A total of 333 US parents completed online surveys during the COVID-19 pandemic: May 2020 (T1), September 2020 (T2), and May 2021 (T3). Food security and parent feeding practices were reported at each time point; pre-COVID-19 behaviors were retrospectively reported at T1. Use and perceptions of NSLP/SNAP policy changes were reported at T3. We examined associations between food security and parent feeding practices using repeated-measures mixed models.
Results: The percentage of parents with very low food security increased from pre-COVID-19 (9.6%) to T1 (29.1%) and remained elevated at T3 (16.8%). One-third (31.2%) of families fluctuated between food security and food insecurity, with 27.0% remaining food insecure at T3. Thirty percent of consistently food-insecure families reported not receiving school-provided meals, and 45% did not receive SNAP benefits. Most parents reported that pickup school meal sites (71.4%), Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer cards (51.4%), and increased SNAP benefits (79.6%) were beneficial. Initial changes in parent feeding practices reported at T1 returned to pre-COVID-19 levels by T3, yet concern for child overweight remained significantly elevated.
Conclusion: Continued policy efforts to support food-insecure families via expanded food access in NSLP/SNAP are critical.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9692184 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00333549221132532 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Projections of Public Spending on Pharmaceuticals: A Review of Methods.
Pharmacoeconomics
January 2025
Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre, Brussels, Belgium.
Background: Forecasting future public pharmaceutical expenditure is a challenge for healthcare payers, particularly owing to the unpredictability of new market introductions and their economic impact. No best-practice forecasting methods have been established so far. The literature distinguishes between the top-down approach, based on historical trends, and the bottom-up approach, using a combination of historical and horizon scanning data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReview of Short-Wavelength Infrared Flip-Chip Bump Bonding Process Technology.
Sensors (Basel)
January 2025
Research and Development Center of Optoelectronic Hybrid IC, Guangdong Greater Bay Area Institute of Integrated Circuit and System, Guangzhou 510535, China.
Short-wave infrared (SWIR) imaging has a wide range of applications in civil and military fields. Over the past two decades, significant efforts have been devoted to developing high-resolution, high-sensitivity, and cost-effective SWIR sensors covering the spectral range from 0.9 μm to 3 μm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhat Is Grazing Time? Insights from the Acoustic Signature of Goat Jaw Activity in Wooded Landscapes.
Sensors (Basel)
December 2024
Rangeland Service, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, P.O. Box 30, Rishon LeZion 5025001, Israel.
Acoustic monitoring facilitates the detailed study of herbivore grazing by generating a timeline of sound bursts associated with jaw movements (JMs) that perform bite or chew actions. The unclassified stream of JM events was used here in an observational study to explore the notion of "grazing time". Working with shepherded goat herds in a wooded landscape, a horn-based acoustic sensor with a vibration-type microphone was deployed on a volunteer animal along each of 12 foraging routes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Bifidogenic Effect of 2'Fucosyllactose Is Driven by Age-Specific Species, Demonstrating Age as an Important Factor for Gut Microbiome Targeted Precision Medicine.
Nutrients
December 2024
Cryptobiotix, Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 82, 9052 Gent, Belgium.
Background: The human gut microbiota develops in concordance with its host over a lifetime, resulting in age-related shifts in community structure and metabolic function. Little is known about whether these changes impact the community's response to microbiome-targeted therapeutics. Providing critical information on this subject, faecal microbiomes of subjects from six age groups, spanning from infancy to 70-year-old adults (n = six per age group) were harvested.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAttachment to Meat and Willingness Towards Cultured Alternatives Among Consumers: A Cross-Sectional Study in the UAE.
Nutrients
December 2024
Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada.
: The escalating global demand for meat, as a sequela of population growth, has led to unsustainable livestock production, resulting in a host of environmental and food security concerns. Various strategies have been explored to mitigate these issues, including the introduction of a novel food product, cultured meat. Cultured meat is not yet commercially available, yet public perceptions are already taking shape.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!