Analysis of ‘US Public Food Assistance’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/jpmiller/publicassistance on 13 February 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Context

This dataset focuses on public assistance programs in the United States that provide food, namely SNAP and WIC. If you are interested in a broader picture of food security across the world, please see Food Security Indicators for the World 2016-2020.

Initial coverage was for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children Program, or simply WIC. The program allocates Federal and State funds to help low-income women and children up to age five who are at nutritional risk. Funds are used to provide supplemental foods, baby formula, health care, and nutrition education.

Starting with version 5, the dataset also covers the US Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as SNAP. The program is the successor to the Food Stamps program previously in place. The program provides food assistance to low-income families in the form of a debit card. A 2016 study using POS data from SNAP-eligible vendors showed the three most purchased types of food to be meats, sweetened beverages, and vegetables.

Content

Files may include participation data and spending for state programs, and poverty data for each state. Data for WIC covers fiscal years 2013-2016, which is actually October 2012 through September 2016. Data for SNAP covers 2015 to 2020.

Motivation

My original purpose here is two-fold:

• Explore various aspects of US Public Assistance. Show trends over recent years and better understand differences across state agencies. Although the federal government sponsors the program and provides funding, program are administered at the state level and can widely vary. Indian nations (native Americans) also administer their own programs.

• Share with the Kaggle Community the joy - and pain - of working with government data. Data is often spread across numerous agency sites and comes in a variety of formats. Often the data is provided in Excel, with the files consisting of multiple tabs. Also, files are formatted as reports and contain aggregated data (sums, averages, etc.) along with base data.

As of March 2nd, I am expanding the purpose to support the M5 Forecasting Challenges here on Kaggle. Store sales are partly driven by participation in Public Assistance programs. Participants typically receive the items free of charge. The store then recovers the sale price from the state agencies administering the program.

Additional Content Ideas

The dataset can benefit greatly from additional content. Economics, additional demographics, administrative costs and more. I'd like to eventually explore the money trail from taxes and corporate subsidies, through the government agencies, and on to program participants. All community ideas are welcome!

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. Information in this dataset consists of participation and lunches served.

This report examines patterns of SNAP benefit redemption in Fiscal Year 2017, particularly related to the timing and amount of transactions and the rate at which households​ exhaust their benefits. Patterns in Fiscal Year 2017 are compared with findings from two similar studies conducted for Fiscal Years 2003 and 2009. This study also examines spending behaviors identified as atypical – months in which a benefit is received but the household does not make a transaction, an ending monthly balance greater than $200, and out-of-state transactions that occur beyond the state’s border counties.​

In April 2011, the World Food Program (WFP) expanded its assistance to address the food security and nutrition needs of Colombian refugees and to support their integration into Ecuadorian communities. The new program was designed as a prospective randomized control trial and consisted of six monthly transfers of cash, food vouchers, or food to Colombian refugees and poor Ecuadorian households. The objectives of the program were three-fold: 1) to improve food consumption by facilitating access to more nutritious foods, 2) to increase the role of women in household decision-making related to food consumption, and 3) to reduce tensions between Colombian refugees and host Ecuadorian populations. The program was implemented in seven urban centers in the provinces of Carchi and Sucumbíos. IFPRI conducted an impact evaluation targeted at estimating the relative impact and cost-effectiveness of cash, food vouchers, and food transfers on household food security indicators; as well as complimentary indicators such as household expenditure and female status.

Zambia ZM: Adequacy: Social Safety Net Programs: % of Total Welfare of Beneficiary Households data was reported at 2.423 % in 2015. Zambia ZM: Adequacy: Social Safety Net Programs: % of Total Welfare of Beneficiary Households data is updated yearly, averaging 2.423 % from Dec 2015 (Median) to 2015, with 1 observations. Zambia ZM: Adequacy: Social Safety Net Programs: % of Total Welfare of Beneficiary Households data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Zambia – Table ZM.World Bank.WDI: Social Protection. Adequacy of social safety net programs is measured by the total transfer amount received by the population participating in social safety net programs as a share of their total welfare. Welfare is defined as the total income or total expenditure of beneficiary households. Social safety net programs include cash transfers and last resort programs, noncontributory social pensions, other cash transfers programs (child, family and orphan allowances, birth and death grants, disability benefits, and other allowances), conditional cash transfers, in-kind food transfers (food stamps and vouchers, food rations, supplementary feeding, and emergency food distribution), school feeding, other social assistance programs (housing allowances, scholarships, fee waivers, health subsidies, and other social assistance) and public works programs (cash for work and food for work). Estimates include both direct and indirect beneficiaries.; ; ASPIRE: The Atlas of Social Protection - Indicators of Resilience and Equity, The World Bank. Data are based on national representative household surveys. (datatopics.worldbank.org/aspire/); Simple average;