Food Resource Management Education With SNAP Participation Improves Food Security

Abstract

Both food assistance and education on nutrition and resource management are needed to reduce food insecurity in SNAP-eligible audiences.

Adults’ food skills and use of gardens are not associated with household food insecurity in Canada

“…13,14,25 The discrepancy between our results and US program evaluation data showing that improving adults' food skills can reduce their food insecurity (see for example refs. [18][19][20] may simply reflect differences in the scope of these research endeavours. Our study provides insight into associations at a population level whereas the education programs assessed have been targeted to particularly high-risk groups who are not necessarily representative of the larger population of food-insecure households.…”

“…The few Canadian studies of programs designed to strengthen the budgeting and cooking skills of at-risk adults suggest that these interventions have limited impact on food insecurity, 8,17 but more structured evaluations of broader-scale, targeted nutrition education initiatives in the US have shown reductions in household food insecurity with improved food shopping and cooking skills (see for example refs. [18][19][20]. While changes in food insecurity have been assessed over relatively short periods and the participant groups have been highly selected, these program evaluations nonetheless suggest that at least among some population subgroups, household food insecurity is sensitive to adults' food skills.…”

A qualitative evaluation of UC CalFreshPlan, Shop, Save, Cookcurriculum reveals additional outcomes

“…The statewide evaluation identified reading Nutrition Facts labels as the behavior showing the most improvement (Kaiser et al 2015).…”

“…More than half (54%) were currently enrolled in the SNAP program, and the rest were income-eligible but not enrolled. Statewide program evaluation data covering the period from 2011 to 2013 found significant pre-post changes in the frequency of food resource management behaviors (Kaiser et al 2015). The percentage of PSSC participants who reported performing these behaviors more often after the PSSC series ranged from 38.8% in comparing prices to 54.0% in reading nutrition labels.…”

Food Inventories Document Behavior Change in Hispanic Women Participating in SNAP Nutrition Education Classes: A Pilot Study

“…[5][6][7]11 This small mixed methods pilot project studied 5 families in-depth to determine whether outcomes of the study met the program objectives for a series of nutrition education and resource management classes taught by UC CalFresh educators. 17 The study integrated qualitative and quantitative research to draw on the strength of each. Qualitative data provided detailed information about the setting or context of the research project including individual attitudes and beliefs that are hard to document quantitatively and also emphasized the voices of participants through quotes.…”