Children participating in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children—commonly known as WIC—are at nutritional risk and need essential nutrients from fruits and vegetables to support development. The WIC food package includes a monthly Cash Value Benefit for purchasing fruits and vegetables. A study in Los Angeles analyzed the impact of increasing the Cash Value Benefit on the amount and diversity of fruits and vegetables purchased by WIC participants. The Cash Value Benefit was raised from $9 to $35 per month and then adjusted to $24. Survey and redemption data from caregivers representing 1,463 WIC children...
California became the first state in the nation to enact a universal school meal policy in 2022. A new study published in Nutrients explores the benefits and challenges California schools experienced during the first year of implementing the new policy, sharing results from surveys completed by 430 California school foodservice professionals in March 2023. Benefits included increased meal participation and revenues, reduced meal debt and stigma, and improved meal quality and staff salaries. Schools experienced challenges related to product and ingredient availability, staffing shortages, logistical issues...
- Author: Brianna Aguayo Villalon
- Editor: Lorrene Ritchie
- Contributor: Marisa M Tsai
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, offers nutrition support to diverse populations. The Cash Value Benefit (CVB) for fruits and vegetables, is a key component of the WIC food packages that accommodates diverse cultural, racial, and ethnic preferences by offering flexibility in fruit and vegetable choices. In response to exacerbated health disparities and decreased food security during the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Department of Agriculture increased the CVB from $9 per month per child to the current amount of $26 per month per child. Study researchers assessed the impact of CVB augmentation on CVB redemption, household...
- Author: Brianna Aguayo Villalon
- Editor: Wendi Gosliner
- Editor: Lorrene Ritchie
- Editor: Monica Daniela Zuercher
In May 2020, running until the end of the 2021-2022 school year, the US Congress authorized the US Department of Agriculture to issue nationwide waivers that allowed all schools to provide universal free school meals to mitigate the impacts of school closures as well as the broader economic challenges faced by families during the COVID-19 emergency. This study aimed to examine parent perceptions about school free meals and whether these perceptions differed by race and ethnicity. In May 2022, 1100 California parents of K-12 students from varying racial and ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, and State regions...
- Author: Brianna Aguayo Villalon
- Editor: Janice Kao
- Editor: Gail M Woodward-Lopez
Nutrition Policy Institute researchers studied an intervention for the expansion of the Mandela Health and Wealth Net, a food hub-based healthy retail initiative located in Oakland, California. The Mandela Produce Distribution food hub aggregates, distributes, and markets source-identified food products to enhance the accessibility of affordable, high-quality produce within low-income, low-access neighborhoods. The Nutrition Policy Institute research team examined how, with a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mandela Partners was able to expand their food hub while implementing complementary interventions to ensure that...