Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL.
J Acad Nutr Diet. 2021 Jan;121(1):27-35. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2020.07.026. Epub 2020 Sep 18.
About 11% of US households are food insecure, and many of those households seek charitable food assistance (CFA). However, little is understood about the nutritional composition of the diets of households receiving CFA, or the relationship between CFA and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) usage among low-income households.
The aim of the study was to compare the nutritional quality of foods obtained by CFA clients to those of similar nonclients. Furthermore, the study examined the timing of CFA use relative to the timing of SNAP use among CFA clients during the week.
DESIGN/PARTICIPANTS: Analyses were conducted using 2012 US Department of Agriculture National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS), which collected data for 4826 households' food acquisitions during a 7-day survey week. Sixty-seven households reported using CFAs during the survey week.
The nutritional quality of food was measured by the ratios between food acquisition quantities and the US Department of Agriculture Thrifty Food Plan consumption recommendations. The date of SNAP use was compared with that of CFA use for CFA clients who were also SNAP recipients.
Propensity score matching was utilized to construct a matching sample of CFA clients and nonclients. T tests were used to compare the means of variables.
CFA clients were more likely to be food insecure (48% vs 28%, P < .001) and less likely to have access to a car (61.2% vs 84.8%, P < .001) than CFA nonclients. CFAs represent an important source of foods for CFA clients, taking up 28% of their total food at home acquisitions. CFA clients obtained more nonstarchy vegetables than matched nonclients. Furthermore, among the 45% of CFA clients who also participated in SNAP, the majority (52.4%) of them used SNAP benefits within 10 days of SNAP benefits distribution while most (67.9%) of those households used CFAs starting on day 11 or later after SNAP benefits were allocated.
CFAs provide a substantial portion of the diets of their clients and, in particular, for foods that constitute components of healthy diets. For the proportion of CFA clients who received SNAP, this study finds evidence that CFA clients relied more on CFAs when their SNAP benefits were likely to run low.
约有 11%的美国家庭存在食品无保障问题，其中许多家庭寻求慈善食品援助（CFA）。然而，人们对接受 CFA 的家庭的饮食营养成分，以及低收入家庭中 CFA 与补充营养援助计划（SNAP）使用之间的关系知之甚少。
本研究旨在比较 CFA 客户获得的食品的营养质量与类似非客户的食品营养质量。此外，本研究还研究了在 CFA 客户的一周内，CFA 使用与 SNAP 使用的时间关系。
设计/参与者：使用 2012 年美国农业部国家家庭食品收购和购买调查（FoodAPS）进行分析，该调查在一周的调查周内收集了 4826 户家庭的食品收购数据。在调查周内，有 67 户家庭报告使用了 CFA。
通过食品收购量与美国农业部节俭食品计划消费建议之间的比值来衡量食物的营养质量。比较了同时也是 SNAP 接受者的 CFA 客户的 SNAP 使用日期和 CFA 使用日期。
利用倾向评分匹配构建 CFA 客户和非客户的匹配样本。使用 t 检验比较变量的均值。
与 CFA 非客户相比，CFA 客户更有可能存在食品无保障问题（48%比 28%，P<0.001），且更有可能无法使用汽车（61.2%比 84.8%，P<0.001）。CFA 是 CFA 客户食品的重要来源，占其家庭食品总收购量的 28%。CFA 客户获得的非淀粉蔬菜比匹配的非客户多。此外，在 45%同时参加 SNAP 的 CFA 客户中，大多数（52.4%）在 SNAP 福利分配后 10 天内使用了 SNAP 福利，而这些家庭中大多数（67.9%）在 SNAP 福利分配后第 11 天或更晚开始使用 CFA。
CFA 为其客户的饮食提供了相当大的一部分，特别是为健康饮食的组成部分提供了食物。对于接受 SNAP 的 CFA 客户比例，本研究发现有证据表明，当 CFA 客户的 SNAP 福利可能耗尽时，他们更依赖于 CFA。
