Families with low income often do not have access to the basic necessities and resources to foster the nurturing experiences and stimulating environments that young children need to thrive. Income supports may reduce poverty in households with young children, provide critical resources to help families support children’s development, diminish families’ stress levels, and thereby advance health equity. This grant funded research on income supports for low-income families with young children, including tax credits and transfer programs, to inform policymaking and encourage more equitable access to these supports.
Increasing access to early care and education (ECE) may reduce poverty in households with young children by supporting parental employment; provide critical resources to help families support children’s development; diminish families’ stress levels; and thereby advance health equity. This grant sought to fund research that highlighted policy- and practice-related reasons for disparities in access to ECE, and which identified current policy or programmatic solutions or needed changes that would promote equity.
A key contributor to children’s healthy development is sufficient access to healthy foods, though research demonstrates that children from low-income households and racial and ethnic minority children experience nutritional disparities. This grant funded research on federal nutrition support programs that serve low-income families with young children, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).
This grant funded a body of research that illuminates strategies and policies that ensure families’ equitable access to key resources for supporting their children’s healthy development. The cross-cutting grants fund research that cut across policy domains, revealing the way that ECE access, income supports, and nutrition supports interact and potentially reinforce one another to promote families’ well being.
Hughes, Cayce C., Marbella Hill, Simon Fern, and Rachel T. Kimbro. "'Making it Stretch': How Low-Income Black Mothers Manage Food Security in the Context of COVID-19." Article prepared for American Sociological Association meeting, 2022.
Please contact chughes@coloradocollege.edu for additional information about this product.
Hill, Marbella E., Simon Fern, Rachel T. Kimbro, and Cayce C. Hughes. "Mothering Through Food: Low-Income Single Mothers and the Embodiment of Provisional Motherhood Identities." Rice University, 2022.
Please contact chughes@coloradocollege.edu for additional information about this product.
Fern, S.E., R. Kimbro, M.E. Hill, and C.C. Hughes. "Emergency Food Support Preference and Usage During COVID-19: A Neighborhood Study of Low-Income Black Mothers' Use of School-Based Food Distribution and P-EBT." American Journal of Public Health, vol. 113, no. S3, December 2023.
Thiede, Kendall, Yuka Asada, Rebecca Schermbeck, Rosie Hanneke, and Jamie Chriqui. "Scoping Review of a Critical Food Safety Net Program: Factors Influencing Implementation of the Child and Adult Care Food Program." Graduate Student Presentation for UIC School of Public Health Research Day, 2020.
Please contact yasada2@uic.edu for additional information about this product.
Schermbeck, R., Y. Asada, K. Thiede, and J. Chriqui. "Perspectives on Promoting Access to the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Food Procurement, Pricing, and Planning--Oh My!" Panel presentation for the 36th National Child Nutrition Conference with two EFPR grantees, 2022.
Please contact yasada2@uic.edu for additional information about this product.
Asada, Yuka, Rebecca Schermbeck, Kendall Thiede, and Jamie Chriqui. "Opportunities to Improve Access and Retention in CACFP: Recommendations from Childcare Providers in Illinois." Panel presentation to the Food Research and Action Committee National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference with two EFPR grantees, 2022.
Please contact yasada2@uic.edu for additional information about this product.
Asada, Yuka, Rebecca Schermbeck, Kendall Thiede, and Jamie Chriqui. "Opportunities to Improve Access and Retention in CACFP: Recommendations from Early Childcare Providers." Presentation to annual meeting of the Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity, 2021.
Please contact yasada2@uic.edu for additional information about this product.
Thiede, Kendall, Yuka Asada, Rebecca Schermbeck, and Jamie Chriqui. "Early Childcare Directors' Qualitative Perspectives on Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Sponsors: Preliminary Findings." Poster presentation for the UIC Research Days, 2020.
Please contact yasada2@uic.edu for additional information about this product.
Bleiweiss-Sande, R. and Y. Asada. "What Will It Take to Bring Equity to Federal Nutrition Support Programs?" American Journal of Public Health, vol. 113, no. S3, December 2023.
Chriqui, J.F. and Y. Asada. "The Child and Adult Care Food Program: A Critical Component of the Nutrition Safety Net for More Than 50 Years." American Journal of Public Health, vol. 113, no. S3, December 2023.