Research

Research is central to the mission of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities. Engaging in rigorous research informs our program development and advocacy work. The Center regularly publishes research outcomes in peer-reviewed journals and releases briefs highlighting this research and providing informed recommendations to change current local and national policies. Select a program or topic below to view these briefs.

Learn more about ongoing and emerging research projects to see what's next for the Center and its work.

Report Topics

Adult Health Child Health Discrimination Education and Child Care Employment Finance and Banking Food Insecurity Healthcare and Medicaid Housing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC)Technology Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)Trauma and Healing

Center Programs

Building Wealth and Health Network Children's Health Watch Witnesses to Hunger

Policy Briefs and Research Reports

Making the Case for Paid Family Leave

2023

Paid family leave is essential for promoting health equity and supporting family well-being. Extensive research has shown that paid family leave programs have a positive impact on adult and child mental, physical, and financial health, and the vast majority of people in America are in favor of paid leave.

Changing the Narrative to Change the Policy: Ending Hunger in America

2022

This brief represents the insight and expertise of people with lived experience and their solutions to address poverty and hunger in America.

Policy Solutions to End Hunger in America: Calling on the White House for Radical Strategy Change

2022

This policy brief outlines the solutions necessary to make true and lasting change regarding food insecurity and diet-related health through both specific programmatic changes and larger-scale philosophical shifts.

Systemic Challenges to Implementing Universal Basic Income

2022

This policy brief explains the fundamental issues with public assistance programs such as SSI and SSDI that are creating barriers to executing Universal Basic Income on a larger scale outside of current pilot programs.

Challenges and Solutions to Public Assistance System Alignment: How Trauma-informed Programming Unveiled Barriers to Aligning TANF and Medicaid

2021

Cross-sector collaboration and systems alignment in public benefit systems can improve the effectiveness of these programs, address social determinants of health, improve family well-being, and create a more equitable society. This brief highlights a number of challenges identified in aligning public benefits such as TANF and Medicare and offers proposed solutions to address them.

SNAP Participants Collaborative: Improve SNAP Benefits to Promote Health and Reduce Hunger

2021

Participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are the true experts on the program. In this brief, they summarize the current challenges of the program and offer specific policy recommendations to improve its ability to address food insecurity across the United States.

Minimum Wage is Not Enough: A True Living Wage is Necessary to Reduce Poverty and Improve Health

2021

The federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 per hour for more than 12 years. While the U.S. minimum wage was never truly a living wage, over time it has done less to reflect the true value of workers and no longer supports families in a way that promotes health and keeps them out of poverty. Many arguments have been made against raising the federal minimum wage. This brief lays out the clear benefits to individual workers, businesses, and the community that outweigh the potential challenges that will arise from providing a living wage to all workers.

Public Health Rationale for Divesting from Police

2021

This policy brief provides an argument for defunding the Philadelphia Police Department by examining city's proposed fiscal year 2022 budget. It provides recommendation on diverting funding to other city resources to more effectively address the major public health issues impacting Philadelphia, including violence.

Universal Basic Income: Key to Reducing Food Insecurity and Improving Health

2021

This policy report highlights the challenges of the current public benefits programs in addressing poverty and provides an overview of universal basic income as a viable solution, including results from almost 50 years of guaranteed income pilot programs.

Financial Health: The Root of Economic Security - Defining and Measuring a New Social Determinant of Health

2020

This 2020 research brief introduces financial health as a measurable concept underlying elements of economic hardship (housing, food and energy insecurity) that can contribute to greater health equity. The study demonstrates that financial health has a significant impact on overall well-being and belongs in the discussion of social determinants of health.

Pennsylvania Cash Assistance Behind the Times

2020

This 2020 policy brief looks at the decline in Pennsylvania TANF cash grants and provides suggested changes to support families.

Reducing Food Insecurity Without Food: Trauma-Informed Financial Education Program Improves Food Security

2020

This 2020 report shows that participation in a trauma-informed educational program reduced the odds of household food insecurity for families with low or no income.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Household Food Insecurity

2019

This research report shows that families reporting Adverse Childhood Experiences, such as domestic violence, neighborhood violence, and family substance abuse, were much more likely to experience household food insecurity.

Systemic Oppression and Trauma: Why Healing-centered, Two-generation Approaches are Crucial to Poverty Alleviation

2019

Systemic racism and discrimination have been found to be root causes of poverty and hunger in the US. This 2019 report looks at healing-centered, two-generation approaches as an important part of addressing economic insecurity imposed by systemic oppression and trauma.

Aligning Systems to Build a Culture of Health: Integrating TANF and Medicaid to Achieve Wealth and Health

2018

Public support programs that aim to improve employment and financial wellbeing should be better coordinated to provide more effective services and reduce costs. This Building Wealth and Health Network brief demonstrates the effectiveness of integrating behavioral health components into financial programming.

Farm Bill and SNAP: What It Means For You

2018

This brief provides a simple overview of the proposed 2018 changes to the Farm Bill and how they could impact SNAP.

From Disparities to Discrimination: Getting at the Roots of Food Insecurity

2018

In this 2018 report, research from Children HealthWatch in Philadelphia documents differences in food insecurity in relation to experiences with racial and ethnic discrimination. Additional briefs spotlight the discrimination experienced in public, healthcare, school, work, and criminal justice system.

Keeping Children's Weight on Track: A Pathway to Health and Well-Being

2018

This 2018 report examines weight trajectories among 2,719 children interviewed by Children's HealthWatch.

Trauma-Informed TANF: A Randomized Controlled Trial with a Two-Generation Impact

2018

This 2018 report highlights the positive impact of incorporating trauma-informed peer support into financial education and standard TANF programming.

Mother's Adversity and Their Children's Development Risk

2017

This 2017 Children's HealthWatch research brief highlights the impact of maternal childhood trauma on their children's health.

Philadelphia Hunger Increases

2017

In this 2017 Children's HealthWatch report, research shows that food insecurity in Philadelphia is increasing at the household and child level for families of children under age 4. In families with a caregiver working at least 20 hours per week, food insecurity is rising even faster.

Childhood Adversity and Food Insecurity in Adulthood: Intergenerational Transfer of Hardship

2016

The more adverse childhood experiences a caregiver reports, the more likely she is to report more severe forms of food insecurity, according to this Children's HealthWatch brief.

Philadelphia Hardship Data

2016

This 2016 Children's HealthWatch report provides a breakdown of the demographic, food insecurity and other hardship data that the Children's HealthWatch team collected from 2005 to 2016.

Focus Groups: A tool for program development and evaluation

2015

This 2015 research brief describes focus groups, settings in which they are used, their use in program development and evaluation, and considerations for conducting effective focus group research.

Freedom from Hunger: An Achievable Goal for the United States of America

2015

To identify solutions to hunger, Congress created the bipartisan National Commission on Hunger to provide policy recommendations to Congress and the USDA Secretary to more effectively use existing programs and funds of the Department of Agriculture to combat domestic hunger and food insecurity. This report is a summary of the findings of public hearings from eight cities and over 180 testimonies.

The Relationship Between Childhood Adversity and Food Insecurity

2015

The childhood stress study report released in 2015 investigated the relationship between adverse childhood experiences—including abuse, neglect, and household instability—and food security status.

TANF Sanctions

2015

This 2015 report looks at the impact of sanctions on those receiving TANF (cash welfare) benefits.

Making SNAP Work for Families Leaving Poverty

2014

SNAP is effective in reducing food insecurity. However, this 2014 report shows that when SNAP is reduced too quickly or families are cut off of SNAP because of an increase in income, they experience greater hardships than those who consistently receive SNAP.

Steadying the Foundation: Maternal Job Stability, Safety Net Programs and Young Children's Health

2014

This 2014 Children's HealthWatch report explores the impact of mothers' job instability on her mental and physical health and the health and development of her children.

Cost of Cutting SNAP

2013

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is America's first line of defense against hunger, but as shown in this report, it is not enough for many families to make it through each month.

Punishing Hard Work: Consequences of Cutting SNAP Benefits

2013

This 2013 Children's HealthWatch report looks at the “cliff effect” related to nutrition assistance programs and offers policy recommendations that would ensure families can climb to economic independence and not “fall off a cliff” when they begin to make progress toward self-sufficiency.

Multiple Hardships Among Philadelphia Families with Young Children (2008-2011)

2012

For many low-income families, hardships are rarely experienced in isolation. This 2012 report looks at the instances and impacts of housing, energy, and food insecurity and when families experience more than one at a time.

The SNAP Vaccine: Boosting Children's Health

2012

This 2012 report examines the impact of SNAP on the health of young children, specifically among those from immigrant families, and provides recommendations to improve the program to better meet the needs of families.

Stable, Affordable Housing Supports Young Children’s Health in Philadelphia

2012

This Children's HealthWatch report from 2012 explores the impact of housing insecurity and frequent moves on child health and development.

WIC Improves Child Health Outcomes

2012

This 2012 policy brief looks at the importance of the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) for child health and stresses the importance of protecting its funding.

Behind Closed Doors: The Hidden Health Impacts of Being Behind on Rent

2011

Research presented by Children’s HealthWatch in this report shows that being behind on rent or mortgage correlates strongly with negative health outcomes for mothers and children.

LIHEAP Stabilizes Family Housing and Protects Children’s Health

2011

This 2011 Children's HealthWatch report highlights the health impacts of energy insecurity and the support offered by LIHEAP to stabilize families’ housing and protect children’s health and growth.

Overcrowding and Frequent Moves Undermine Children’s Health

2011

This 2011 Children's HealthWatch report explores the impact of overcrowded housing and frequent moves on child health and development.

The Real Cost of a Healthy Diet

2011

This 2011 report looks at the cost of a healthy diet by examining the affordability and accessibility of food for those receiving SNAP benefits, based on the USDA's Thrifty Food Plan.

Too Many Hurdles: Barriers to Receiving SNAP Put Children’s Health at Risk

2011

This Children's HealthWatch report from 2011 looks at how barriers to accessing SNAP put children’s nutrition, health, and growth at risk.

Child Care Feeding Programs Support Young Children’s Healthy Development

2010

This Children's HealthWatch brief highlights research findings that show toddlers in subsidized child care with supplied meals are more likely to be in good health than similar toddlers whose meals must be supplied from home.

Children of Immigrants: Healthy Beginnings Derailed by Food Insecurity

2010

This Children's HealthWatch report shows the role food insecurity plays in harming the health of young children of immigrants, despite their likelihood of having a healthier start.

Earning More, Receiving Less: Loss of Benefits and Child Hunger

2010

This 2010 report shows that families who lose SNAP or TANF benefits when they exceed income eligibility limits experience higher rates of child food insecurity than those receiving benefits.

Energy Insecurity is a Major Threat to Child Health

2010

This 2010 Children's HealthWatch report shares that young children in energy insecure homes are at high risk for food insecurity, poor health, hospitalizations, and developmental delays. The recession increased the risk of energy insecurity, putting more children’s health in jeopardy.