- (Focus Area) Food
- Author: Danielle Lee
- Editor: Lorrene D Ritchie
The federal Child and Adult Care Food Program, commonly known as CACFP, ensures over 4.2 million children, mostly in families with low income, receive nutritious meals and snacks in childcare. However, not all qualifying childcare providers participate in this beneficial program. Research suggests that the serious deficiency process, designed to ensure program integrity, may hinder participation. Interviews with ten California CACFP sponsors—who administer the program for family childcare home providers and some centers—highlight key issues. Sponsors find the process too harsh, disqualifying providers for simple mistakes, creating equity issues for those with limited technology skills or non-English speakers, and being subjective, unclear and time consuming. These findings are timely as the USDA considers improvements. The full research brief, “CACFP Family Childcare Home Sponsor Perspectives - Serious Deficiency Challenges,” was published by the Nutrition Policy Institute, University of California, Berkeley, and the CACFP Roundtable. This research is part of a larger project funded by Healthy Eating Research, and national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children—commonly known as WIC—safeguards the health of pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and young children from low-income households who are at nutritional risk. The WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study, also known as the "Feeding My Baby Study," is the only national study to capture data on caregivers and their children over the first nine years of the child's life after enrollment in WIC, regardless of their continued participation in the program. The WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study-2: Sixth Year Report is the seventh in a series generated from this study. It focuses on children's dietary intake patterns, eating behaviors, and weight status during the child's 6th year, after WIC eligibility has ended. The report also explores whether patterns of WIC participation in early childhood are associated with dietary behaviors and nutrient intakes after WIC eligibility ends. Key findings from the report include:
- Consistent 5-year participation in WIC is associated with better overall diet quality at age 6 compared to participation during only the first year of life.
- Longer participation in WIC is associated with lower saturated fat intake at age 6.
- At age 6, study children consumed recommended amounts of macronutrients but had inadequate intake of certain micronutrients, including vitamin E, calcium, and vitamin D.
- Usual intake of fruits, vegetables, dairy, protein foods, and grains among study participants was consistent with that of a national sample but lower than recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
The report was published by the US Department of Agriculture and includes Nutrition Policy Institute's Lorrene Ritchie as a co-author. Read a summary of the report online.
A new set of data briefs developed by the Nutrition Policy Institute showcases the impactful programming carried out by local health departments through California's SNAP-Ed program in Federal Fiscal Year 2023.
- FFY 2023 CalFresh Healthy Living Program at a Glance: Learn more about the community context and overall reach of local health department CalFresh Healthy Living in FFY 2023.
- Policy, Systems, & Environmental Change Efforts: Learn about the audiences local health departments reached with policy, systems and environmental change—commonly known as PSE— efforts, as well as common settings and PSE approaches.
- Educational Activities: Learn about the audiences local health departments reached with CalFresh Healthy Living education, as well as common settings and educational approaches.
- Partnerships & Multi-Sector Coalitions: Learn about the ways local health departments engaged with community partners and multi-sector coalitions to support and sustain impactful interventions.
- Program Effectiveness: Learn about the PSE practices in place at CalFresh Healthy Living sites as measured by site-level assessment questionnaires, behavioral outcomes of school-based interventions as evaluated via Impact Outcome Evaluation and outcomes from adult direct education.
The data briefs were created by NPI's CalFresh Healthy Living Evaluation Unit.
- Author: Brianna Aguayo Villalon
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, provides nutrition assistance to low-income pregnant and postpartum women. The WIC cash value benefit (CVB) for fruits and vegetables was increased from $9/month to $35/month in June 2021 and was revised further to $25/month from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023. A new policy brief from the Nutrition Policy Institute and PHFE-WIC researchers shows how an increase in the CVB increased the redemption amount and diversity of fruits and vegetables purchased among participating families. The brief highlights findings from a larger study of 1578 WIC-participating families in Los Angeles, California that analyzed their purchases during the increase of the CVB. Study results show that the increased CVB led to significant rises in both the prevalence and dollar amount of fruit and vegetable redemption, benefiting 53 of 54 commodity groups and enhancing dietary diversity for participating households. The policy brief was developed by Catherine Yepez, Christopher Anderson, and Shannon Whaley of PHFE-WIC, a program of Heluna Health, in collaboration with Lauren Au of the University of California, Davis, Department of Nutrition, and Marisa Tsai and Lorrene Ritchie with the Nutrition Policy Institute.
- Author: John M Harper
Attention Mendocino & Lake Ranchers, Farmers, Forest Land Owners:
Attached is a flier about our survey that some of you may have received. It is very important that you take the time to fill out the survey as it helps us help you. It also help us justify Advisor position requests that will serve Mendocino & Lake Counties. The information we collect is completely confidential and will be used to clean up our client database and give us direction for the types of programs and research you want. If you have children of 4-H age or know others that might be interested in 4-H we will use that part of the survey results for contacting you about participating. If you want ranch, forest or farm visits with our Advisors we will follow up with you to schedule.
Thanks so much for completing the survey!
Sincerely,
John Harper
UCCE Livestock & Natural Resources Advisor, Emeritus
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