Description: Students will: grapple with the complex etiology and consequences of food insecurity in the U.S., including the historical roots of current programming; interrogate current approaches to addressing it at the local, state, and federal levels; and synthesize the state of the science toward policy proposals for strategic programmatic refinements.
Learning Objectives: A. Appreciate the complex set of factors that influence the risk for and experience of food insecurity in the United States by…
1. Reflecting on their and their family’s food-related traditions, practices, and routines and any related privileges or lack thereof, and
2. Developing a conceptual map of factors known to impact risk of or be associated with food insecurity;
B. Know the reach, function, and impacts of current non-profit and federal food assistance programs by…
3. Defining the current eligibility criteria and key provisions of major federal and non-profit food assistance programs,
4. Identifying purported/hypothesized impacts of food assistance programming for individuals, households, communities, and the economy, and
5. Analyzing known dietary, health, social, and economic food assistance program impacts based on the available peer-reviewed literature;
C. Understand the historical events that informed current U.S. food assistance programming efforts by…
6. Examining the political, social, and economic circumstances surrounding the origin of a federal food assistance program,
7. Describing the ways in which the reach, provisions, and impacts of a federal food assistance program have changed over time, and
8. Comparing contemporary and historical controversies related to the private and public administration of food assistance benefits,
D. Recognize the strengths, limitations, and potential of various food assistance approaches by…
9. Assessing a selected food assistance program's strengths and limitations, and
10. Proposing a program modification that would be reasonably expected to expand reach, facilitate efficiencies, or improve program outcomes.