food insecurity

A new report on the Guaranteed Income to Grow Ann Arbor (GIG A2) pilot program, which was designed and implemented by Poverty Solutions, found that the top ways that guaranteed income recipients spent the money in 2024 was food, household supplies, a...

The Ford School's Luke Shaefer spoke with CBS Detroit on the federal government shutdown's impact on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).  "There are senior citizens, millions of senior citizens, millions of families with kids who ar...

EXPERTS ADVISORY University of Michigan experts are available to discuss the impact of a potential halt in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding due to the federal government shutdown. A directive from the U.S. Department of Agriculture h...

New findings from a University of Michigan survey of Detroiters showing the top challenges households face in their daily lives and how they would like city leadership to respond have implications for Detroit's mayoral election in November.

Nearly 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. lack access to reliable transportation, making it one of the country's most common forms of material hardship, say University of Michigan researchers.

New research from the University of Michigan focuses on the effect of the 2021 Child Tax Credit on families living in poverty, noting that the monthly payments reduced certain types of hardship and had little to no impact on parents’ employment statu...

A new Poverty Solutions study found that one in four American adults lacks consistent access to transportation. Alexandra Murphy, assistant professor of public policy and co-author of the study, further broke down the findings. "The percentage of...

The expanded Child Tax Credit was wildly successful in providing Americans relief. But, its abrupt end could reverse that, according to Luke Shaefer, inaugural director of Poverty Solutions. "This has been a success story for middle-class familie...

More than 20% of older adults in the United States will experience food insufficiency at some point in their 60s and 70s, according to a University of Michigan study. The study, led by U-M researcher Helen Levy, examined the probability that olde...

With COVID-19 still affecting the economy and people's finances, experts have seen food hardship increase across the country recently, rising faster in households without children. Patrick Cooney, assistant director of the Detroit Partnership on Econ...

As food prices continue to rise, an increase in SNAP benefits nationwide will help many low-income families, says Kristin Seefeldt. "We've all heard about and probably felt in our own pocketbooks, the increase in grocery prices. So this will make...

New data reveals that food insecurity stayed low during the pandemic stayed at relatively low levels, which Luke Shaefer attributes to expanded government aid.  “We now have definitive evidence that food hardship is responsive to government aid. ...

Shaefer: "A number of years ago work requirements were reimposed on food stamps for adults without dependents....We looked at the research nationally and locally....when you add work requirements, there is very little evidence there it has any impact...

“I think there is a looming crisis … people are going to have to make choices about what they pay,” said Kristin Seefeldt. “They're already making choices about what bills to pay. It becomes this heat or eat choice that is really devastating for fami...

“The things that we did in the CARES Act in May, they really worked to a greater degree than I think a lot of people have appreciated,” Shaefer said. “So we can build on that and do more. I’d like us to do more for families with kids.” Read the f...

Ford School professor Robert Hampshire works at the intersection of public policy and engineering, with a specific focus on using better transportation systems to overcome inequities in society. Since early fall 2019, he and his colleagues had been w...

Access to food is a critical measure of societal disparity that has been brought into sharp relief by the COVID-19 pandemic. School lunch programs that previously helped bridge a gap for low income families are unavailable during school closures, and...

Luke Shaefer marked the start of the United Way of Washtenaw County’s annual fundraising campaign by highlighting the increasing and often invisible economic inequality in the local community. According to Lisa Barry from WEMU, who covered the event,...