In mid-March 2020, school buildings closed and the total number of school meals served in Connecticut dropped by 32% in the first two weeks. But, thanks to the creative outreach and flexibility exhibited by school food service directors, these numbers rebounded, according to a new study from researchers at the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

When school buildings across the U.S. closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many school districts mobilized to establish emer­gency school meal programs to operate outside the setting of school cafeterias. The aim of this conver­gent mixed-methods study is to (a) examine the structure and rates of participation in the spring 2020 meal programs in Connecticut, and (b) obtain insight about the challenges, strategies used, and lessons learned during this time by food service leaders.

Full citation: Connolly K, Babbin M, McKee S, et al. Dedication, innovation, and collaboration: A mixed-methods analysis of school meals in Connecticut during COVID-19. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. 2021:1-17. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2021.102.020

When the food industry promises to police itself and pledges to improve nutrition in public health, can it be trusted to make meaningful change or must government mandate those changes? Dr. Jessica Fanzo, Professor of Global Food and Agricultural Policy and Ethics at Johns Hopkins University, and Dr. Jennifer Harri, Senior Research Advisor for Marketing Initiatives at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut, help answer this question.

The purpose of this study is to identify health resources associated with propensity to vote at the local-level among low-wage workers in two United States. cities. Literature confirms individuals of lower income have a lower propensity of turning out to vote, yet few studies have focused on low-income populations to identify the variation in factors associated with voting within this group.

Full citation: McGuire CM, Gollust SE, De Marco M, Durfee T, Wolfson J, Caspi CE. Equity at the Ballot Box: Health as a Resource for Political Participation Among Low-Income Workers in Two United States Cities. Frontiers in Political Science. 2021;2. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2020.601323

Using results from our Rudd report on school meals during COVID, this infographic outlines best practices for implementing emergency school meal programs during the pandemic.

Food insecurity, defined as the inability to access sufficient food for an active, healthy life, affects 11.1% of the US population and is primarily assessed using the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 18-item Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM). This pilot study aimed to determine (i) the interrater reliability of the HFSSM; (ii) the direction of any difference
between responses to the HFSSM; and (iii) the item-level response similarities and differences among mothers and fathers of young children.

Full Citation: Foster JS, Adamsons K, Schwartz MB, Taylor EA, Mobley AR. A pilot examination of the inter-rater reliability of the 18-item Household Food Security Module between cohabiting mothers and fathers. Transl Behav Med. 2020;10(6):1306-1311. https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/ibaa036

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, food policy councils (FPCs) have emerged as a critical struc- ture for organizing community-based responses to multiple food system issues. Strong relationships with various food system stakeholders have proven essential in inspiring coordinated action. Using the early results of a Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future survey of FPCs (2020), we discuss some of the accomplishments and contributions that 118 FPCs have made toward addressing hunger and supporting producers, school food, food chain workers, racial equity, and resilience in the United States and in tribal nations.

Full citation: Palmer A, Atoloye A, Bassarab K, Calancie L, Santo R, Cooksey Stowers K. COVID-19 responses: Food policy councils are “stepping in, stepping up, and stepping back”. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. 2020:1-4. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2020.101.013

In the USA, community-based food pantries provide free groceries to people struggling with food insecurity. Many pantries obtain food from regional food banks using an online shopping platform. A food bank introduced a visible nutrition rank (i.e. green, yellow or red) onto its platform. The hypothesis was that pantry orders would increase for the healthiest options (green) and decrease for the least healthy options (red).

Full Citation: Martin K, Xu R, Schwartz MB. Food pantries select healthier foods after nutrition information is available on their food bank’s ordering platform [published online ahead of print, 2020 Nov 27]. Public Health Nutrition. 2020;1-8. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980020004814

Food pantries select foods with higher nutritional quality, such as fresh produce, brown rice, and low-fat meats, when nutrition information is made available according to new research from the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. Selections of less healthy options, such as sugary juice drinks, higher fat dairy, and higher fat meats, also decrease when nutrition information is available.

Dr. Rebecca Puhl, Deputy Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, joins Adam to deep dive into the concept of weight stigma and how often we misunderstand the science of weight gain. Rebecca covers the relationship between weight stigma and eating disorders, the role personal behavior does and does not play into weight gain, how “genes load the gun but environment pulls the trigger,” weight bias in the medical field, what to say to yourself when you look in the mirror, and more.