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Food Assistance Programs and Child Health


Olivia Pieterse 20'
(journal article)
This article, titled Food Assistance Programs and Child Health, discusses various food assistance
programs, specifically SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), and how these programs
should be altered to further benefit those who partake in the National School Lunch Program.  In addition
to discussing SNAP, Gunderson also mentions other programs, such as WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition
Program for Women, Infants, and Children), NSLP (free- and reduced-price National School Lunch Program), and the SBP (free- and reduced-price School Breakfast Program. He talks about the purpose of these programs and how they were established to both decrease food insecurity and improve children’s health; however, Gundersen also explores how these programs can sometimes have a negative effect on certain groups of people, specifically those in low-income communities. It focuses both on the positive and negative effects of these programs and how in the future, these programs could be further changed to help others. This article was vital to my research. It helped describe these programs and their effects on people in various communities. It also discussed various aspects of nutrition and how these programs are considered by some to combat malnutrition and obesity. This article does show bias, as there are arguments and points made that the author disagrees with. The intended audience of this article is probably those working with and for these food programs and lawmakers who might make change in regards to these food programs.

Gundersen, Craig. “Food Assistance Programs and Child Health.” The Future of Children, vol. 25, no. 1, 2015, pp. 91–109. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43267764.
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