Podcast Topic: Social Safety Net & Food
Podcast Topic: Social Safety Net & Food
E198: Why SNAP pandemic benefits for college students should continue
March 7, 2023
There has been increasing attention to the issue of food insecurity among college students. Estimates vary, but to provide some perspective, one report found that a staggering 30% of all college students experienced food insecurity at some point in their college careers. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US temporarily extended the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to college-aged students. But now this pandemic help is set to expire, impacting more than three million college students who have relied on this program for food. Today we speak with Heather Taylor, a former US delegate to the United Nations, and now managing director of Bread for the World. Having experienced severe food insecurity as an undergraduate student at Georgetown University, she now advocates for SNAP expansion for college students and other marginalized groups facing food insecurity.
Related podcasts: Diet & Nutrition | Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | Social Safety Net & Food |
E197: USDA plans for online WIC Benefits
February 28, 2023
In February, 2023, the US Department of Agriculture announced plans to streamline and modernize WIC – the Women Infants and Children Program focused on supplemental nutrition. We’ll talk about the future of WIC today with Stacy Dean, the Deputy Undersecretary for USDA’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services.
Related podcasts: Child Development & Nutrition | COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts on Food | Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | Social Safety Net & Food |
E192: How to achieve food equity with SNAP
January 4, 2023
Today we’re speaking with coauthors of a new report by the Center for Law and Social Policy, entitled “A Community-Driven Anti-Racism Vision for SNAP.” Senior policy analyst, Parker Gilkesson, and community organizer, Tamika Moore, argue that although public benefits such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provide critical care and support for families with low incomes, they also reinforce racism and structures of oppression.
Related podcasts: Advocacy & Food | Diet & Nutrition | Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | Social Safety Net & Food |
E187: FDA role in national strategy to end hunger
November 14, 2022
In September of 2022, the White House held the first conference focused on hunger, nutrition, and health, in 50 years. The convening served as the Biden-Harris administration’s call-to-action to end hunger, and increase healthy eating, and the physical activity among Americans, by the year 2030. But how successful was this event in actually catalyzing a national strategy? We’ll hear perspectives on this from Dr. Susan Mayne, Director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the Food and Drug Administration.
Related podcasts: Diet & Nutrition | Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | Social Safety Net & Food |
E168: Nutrition Security now a Clear Focus for USDA
May 26, 2022
Poor nutrition is the leading cause of health issues in the United States, with nearly three in four American adults being overweight or obese, and obesity in children and young people being equally concerning. Today, we’re talking with Dr. Sara Bleich, the new Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity at the Food and Nutrition Service at the US Department of Agriculture. Dr. Bleich is leading the department’s overall effort to tackle food and nutrition insecurity in the United States.
Related podcasts: Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | Social Safety Net & Food |
E154: Micropantries and Community Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic
January 21, 2022
Today, we’re going to speak about micropantries as a form of community resilience in the face of the food insecurity exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our guests today are Reverend Wendy Miller Olapade of the United Church of Christ in Medford, Massachusetts, professor Norbert Wilson, who’s Professor of Food Economics and Community at Duke University, and lead author of a recent paper on micropantries in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Sara Folta, with the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition, Science, and Policy.
Related podcasts: Community & Economic Development | COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts on Food | Faith & Food | Food Insecurity | Social Safety Net & Food |
E145: A Strategy to Improve SNAP Impact Through the Next Farm Bill
October 12, 2021
In 2023, the U.S. will reauthorize the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, as part of the massive Farm Bill. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdowns and unprecedented innovations to SNAP benefits and delivery, what should the future program look like? As one of the country’s most important social safety nets, SNAP is a proven policy for stabilizing the economy, lifting Americans out of poverty, reducing food insecurity, and improving health while also reducing healthcare costs. In anticipation of this reauthorization, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research Program published a new report entitled “Strengthening the Public Health Impacts of SNAP: Key Opportunities for the Next Farm Bill.” The report identified the evidence-based changes that have the greatest potential to improve SNAP participants’ nutrition and their overall health. And the stakes on this are really high because the lives of so many people are affected. Today, we’ll be talking with Duke University’s Megan Lott, deputy director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research Program, and coauthor Catherine Woteki, former under secretary for the USDA’s Research, Education, and Economics mission areas, who is now on the faculty of Iowa State University and at the University of Virginia, and she’s also the president of the Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Foundation.
Related podcasts: Advocacy & Food | Child Development & Nutrition | COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts on Food | Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | Social Safety Net & Food |
E143: Improved Child Tax Credit Will Lift Many Out of Poverty
September 28, 2021
As many as 13 million children in the United States live in food insecure homes, meaning that these households don’t have enough food for every family member to lead a healthy life. Hunger is a problem that most often affects children from low-income families. And today we’re going to discuss the Child Tax Credit aimed at helping low-income families and the historic increases in the credit made through the American Rescue Plan in 2021. Our guest today is Billy Shore, the founder and executive chair of Share Our Strength, a nonprofit working to solve problems of hunger and poverty, both in the United States and around the world. Share Our Strength is also the parent organization for the well-known No Kid Hungry campaign, the national policy, advocacy, outreach, and research effort to improve childhood nutrition, support school meals, and provide resources to schools, food banks, and community groups working to end hunger.
Related podcasts: COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts on Food | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | Social Safety Net & Food |
E136: When North Carolina Schools Offer Free Meals Academic Success Follows
August 19, 2021
For youngsters in school, nutritional meals really do lead the higher grades and better performance across the board. Today we’ll explore a policy called the Community Eligibility Provision or CEP that allows schools in low-income areas to offer free meals to all students. We have two guests today. Marianne Hedrick Weant, Programs Manager at the North Carolina Alliance for Health and Dr. Sarah Crittenden Fuller, Research Associate Professor at The University of North Carolina and a proud Duke alum from our own program. She’s also the coauthor of a new policy brief on this topic, entitled Meals Matter, The Community Eligibility Provision and Students’ Success in North Carolina.
Related podcasts: Child Development & Nutrition | Childhood Obesity | Diet & Nutrition | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | North Carolina | School Meals | Social Safety Net & Food |
E135: How did SNAP do during COVID and What Changes Need to Stay?
July 20, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic changed our lives and led to mandated business and school closures, families and communities all around the country experienced record levels of unemployment and record levels of food insecurity. This led to unprecedented policy innovation designed to increase access to nutritious food through the supplemental nutrition assistance program, known as SNAP. The program that was formerly known as Food Stamps. In today’s podcast, we’ll talk with the authors of a new report entitled, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Waivers and Adaptations During the COVID-19 Pandemic, A Survey of State Agency Perspectives in 2020.
Related podcasts: COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts on Food | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | Social Safety Net & Food |