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Rural Hunger and Access to Healthy Food – Resources

Selected recent or important resources focusing on Rural Hunger and Access to Healthy Food.

Food Access and Food Delivery Service: An Exploratory Study for the Role of Public Transportation During the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020-2021
Explores public transportation services that offered food delivery services before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Reports on surveys completed by 392 transit agencies in December 2020 and 63 transit agencies in June 2021 about their role related to increasing food access in their communities. Includes discussions about food insecurity in rural and tribal areas and mitigating transportation strategies.
Additional links: Executive Summary
Author(s): Hamad Al Qublan, Jeremy Mattson, Jill Hough
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Small Urban and Rural Center on Mobility, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
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Rural Produce Prescription Toolkit Webinar
A recorded webinar that provides an overview of the rural produce prescription toolkit and resources for implementing a produce prescription program. Discusses food security issues such as vouchers for produce and partnerships that provide nutritional support to communities. Transcript available below description.
Date: 04/2022
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: No Kid Hungry
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Rural Produce Prescription Toolkit: Increasing Access to Healthy Food for Rural Communities
Provides a framework for how to implement a produce prescription program in a rural community to improve healthy food access. Discusses funding, partnerships, program design, and evaluation with considerations for scalability and sustainability.
Date: 04/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: No Kid Hungry, UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations
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Consumer Food Insights
A monthly report that surveys and tracks more than 1,200 Americans to follow trends in consumer food behavior and sustainability. April 2022 issue includes rural versus urban data on Food Away From Home (FAFH) spending, food security, food satisfaction, consumer shopping and eating habits, consumer beliefs, and more, based on aggregate data from the January to April 2022 surveys.
Author(s): Jayson L. Lusk, Sam Polzin
Date: 04/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability
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Evaluating the Dissemination and Implementation of a Community Health Worker-Based Community Wide Campaign to Improve Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Physical Activity among Latinos along the U.S.-Mexico Border
Describes a culturally tailored community-wide program to augment fruit and vegetable consumption and promote physical activity among 5,686 low-income Latinos of Mexican descent living in Texas. Features demographics and statistics on changes in fruit and vegetable consumption over the course of the intervention.
Author(s): Paul Gerardo Yeh, Belinda M. Reininger, Lisa A. Mitchell-Bennett, et al.
Citation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(8), 4514
Date: 04/2022
Type: Document
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Over 9 Million Adults Ages 50 and Older Faced Food Insecurity in 2020
Describes trends in food insecurity of food-insecure adults ages 50 and older between 2010-2020. Highlights demographic characteristics linked to older adult food insecurity, including race, educational attainment, income, sex, and nonmetropolitan residence. Presents state-by-state statistics on food insecurity prevalence by age group.
Author(s): Olivia Dean, Carlos Figueiredo
Date: 03/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: AARP Public Policy Institute
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A Descriptive Analysis of Food Pantries in Twelve American States: Hours of Operation, Faith-Based Affiliation, and Location
Describes the development and content of a charitable food dataset, including geographic information for 3,777 food pantries in 12 states. Features statistics including food insecurity in 2013-2015 and numbers of food pantries and faith-based food pantries, with breakdowns by state and urban or rural locations.
Author(s): Natalie D. Riediger, Lindsey Dahl, Rajeshwari A. Biradar, Adriana N. Mudryj, Mahmoud Torabi
Citation: BMC Public Health, 22, 525
Date: 03/2022
Type: Document
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USDA Community Eligibility Provision Characteristics Study
Reports on the school meal service Community Eligible Provisions (CEP) in low-income areas based on data from school years 2014-2015 and 2016-2017. Discusses characteristics of participating and non-participating Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and schools, the perceived benefits and barriers of participation, and impacts of CEP. Includes data on eligibility and participation of LEAs in rural areas.
Additional links: Summary
Author(s): Jim Murdoch, Hiren Nisar, Devin Wallace-Williams, et al.
Date: 03/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: USDA Food and Nutrition Service
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Best Practices in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment and Training (E&T) Programs: 2016–2020 Final Report
A literature review of 105 research studies and papers from 2016-2020 related to employment and training programs for low-income individuals, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Employment and Training (E&T). Includes information about program changes, referral and retention strategies, work-based interventions, and more. Includes discussions about rural contexts throughout.
Additional links: Summary
Author(s): Anne Paprocki, Melissa Mack, Mahika Rangnekar
Date: 02/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Social Policy Research, USDA Food and Nutrition Service
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Children Living in Households That Experienced Food Insecurity: United States, 2019–2020
Presents information on children living in food insecure households based on data from the 2019-2020 National Health Interview Survey. Provides data on food insecurity according to sex, age, race and ethnicity, urbanicity, and family structure. Figure 3 shows percentage of children experiencing food insecurity in nonmetropolitan, medium and small metro, large fringe metro, and large central metro.
Author(s): Heidi Ullmann, Julie D. Weeks, Jennifer H. Madans
Date: 02/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Center for Health Statistics
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Additional resources are available related to this guide. See the full list of resources by topic for:


Last Updated: 8/8/2024