Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economic (RIDGE)

 

To provide economic and other social science information and analysis for public and private decisions on agriculture, food, natural resources, and rural America. ERS produces such information for use by the general public and to help the executive and legislative branches develop, administer, and evaluate agricultural and rural policies and programs. The Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics (RIDGE) Program encourages new and innovative research on food and nutrition assistance issues and broadens the participation of social science scholars in such research.

Active 10.255 Economic Research Service, Department of Agriculture A - Formula Grants; L - Dissemination of Technical Information Fiscal Year 2016 The impact of food assistance programs on consumption patterns, food choices, and nutritional outcomes is a central theme of research funded through the RIDGE Program in FY 2016. These projects will be presented at the RIDGE Conference scheduled in October 2016: The Effects of SNAP on Non-Food Consumption: An Instrumental Variables Approach Lorenzo Almada, School of Social Work, Columbia University Design Flaws: The Effect of the Coverage Gap in Food Assistance Programs on Children’s Well-Being Irma Arteaga and Colleen Heflin, School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri The Impact of Expanding the National School Meals Program on School Performance Joseph Price, Department of Economics, Brigham Young University, and Daniel Rees, Department of Economics, University of Colorado, Denver The Impacts of School Lunch Reforms on Student Outcomes Diane Schanzenbach, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University Identifying Multiple Patterns of Characteristics that Result in U.S. Urban and Rural Households having Very Low Food Security Using Classification Trees Edward Frongillo Jr., Maryah S. Fram, and Seul Ki Choi, University of South Carolina Community Eligibility and Child Well-Being Colleen Heflin, University of Missouri and Daniel P. Miller, Boston University School of Social Work Spatially Heterogeneous Effects of SNAP Participation and Food Insecurity on Hispanic Children’s Physical and Mental Health Shannon Monnat and Jennifer Van Hook, Pennsylvania State University Rural and Urban Comparisons of SNAP Participation, Neighborhood Effects, and Food Outlet Availability on Childhood and Adult Time with Normal and Obese Weight: Using the NLSY Thomas Vartanian, Bryn Mawr College Additionally, two RIDGE Doctoral Dissertation Grants were awarded in FY 2016: Obesity, Cultural Identity, and Food Distribution Programs in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Kasey Jernigan, University of Massachusetts; Supervising Professor, Tom Leatherman, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Exploring Race, Class, and Food Access across Different Geographic Scales Lillian MacNell, North Carolina State University; Supervising Professor, Sarah Bowen, North Carolina State University Also in FY 2016, an Interagency Agreement between the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and the Economic Research Service (ERS) was initiated to provide funding for the recompetition of a grant to establish a Research Center to administer the Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics (RIDGE) Program. The recompetition will (1) provide renewed focus on economic aspects of food and nutrition assistance research, (2) stimulate new and innovative research on domestic food and nutrition assistance issues by providing small grants for new analyses of the USDA major food and nutrition assistance programs, food security, and smaller, less studied programs such as the Summer Food Service Program, (3) broaden the support of both established and emerging scholars to increase the number and diversity of researchers who collaborate in tackling the unique food and nutrition challenges that exist across communities, regions, and States, and (4) achieve cost savings through administration of program activities at a single center. The impact of food assistance programs on consumption patterns, food choices, and nutritional outcomes was a central theme of research funded through the RIDGE Program in FY 2016. Findings from these RIDGE research projects were presented at the annual conference held in Washington, DC, October 2016. Summaries of the studies were added to the ERS website at https://data.ers.usda.gov/FANRP-ridge-project-summaries.aspx. The research studies were: The Effects of SNAP on Non-Food Consumption: An Instrumental Variables Approach Lorenzo Almada, School of Social Work, Columbia University Design Flaws: The Effect of the Coverage Gap in Food Assistance Programs on Children’s Well-Being Irma Arteaga and Colleen Heflin, School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri The Impact of Expanding the National School Meals Program on School Performance Joseph Price, Department of Economics, Brigham Young University, and Daniel Rees, Department of Economics, University of Colorado, Denver The Impacts of School Lunch Reforms on Student Outcomes Diane Schanzenbach, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University Identifying Multiple Patterns of Characteristics that Result in U.S. Urban and Rural Households having Very Low Food Security Using Classification Trees Edward Frongillo Jr., Maryah S. Fram, and Seul Ki Choi, University of South Carolina Community Eligibility and Child Well-Being Colleen Heflin, University of Missouri and Daniel P. Miller, Boston University School of Social Work Spatially Heterogeneous Effects of SNAP Participation and Food Insecurity on Hispanic Children’s Physical and Mental Health Shannon Monnat and Jennifer Van Hook, Pennsylvania State University Rural and Urban Comparisons of SNAP Participation, Neighborhood Effects, and Food Outlet Availability on Childhood and Adult Time with Normal and Obese Weight: Using the NLSY Thomas Vartanian, Bryn Mawr College Using Geo-ethnography to Understand How Place and Space Matter in Issues of Food Access Lillian MacNell, North Carolina State University Also in FY 2016, an Interagency Agreement between the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and the Economic Research Service (ERS) was initiated to provide funding for the recompetition of a grant to establish a Research Center to administer the Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics (RIDGE) Program. The recompetition was implemented to (1) provide renewed focus on economic aspects of food and nutrition assistance research, (2) stimulate new and innovative research on domestic food and nutrition assistance issues by providing small grants for new analyses of the USDA major food and nutrition assistance programs, food security, and smaller, less studied programs such as the Summer Food Service Program, (3) broaden the support of both established and emerging scholars to increase the number and diversity of researchers who collaborate in tackling the unique food and nutrition challenges that exist across communities, regions, and States, and (4) achieve cost savings through administration of program activities at a single center. A grant was awarded to Tufts University and the University of Connecticut (Tufts/UConn) to jointly administer a program of sub-awards to investigators at universities and other institutions for research projects conducted during FY 2017-18. Tufts/UConn provides oversight of the application, peer review, sub-grant award, and quality-assurance processes of the RIDGE Program to (1) support food and nutrition assistance research at the national level as well as for specific populations, such as immigrants, Native Americans, people living in rural areas, or residents in areas who experience limited access to healthy foods; and (2) disseminate these research findings to a diverse stakeholder audience, including other researchers, policy and program officials, and the general public.
Fiscal Year 2017 The Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics (RIDGE) Program encourages new and innovative research on food and nutrition assistance issues and broadens the participation of social science scholars in such research. RIDGE is funded by USDA’s Economic Research Service and Food and Nutrition Service and administered in partnership with several universities during FY 2016-18: • The RIDGE Center for National Food and Nutrition Assistance Research at the Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison (ended FY 2016), and • The RIDGE Center for Targeted Food and Nutrition Assistance Research at the Center for Regional Development, Purdue University (ended FY 2016); • Tufts University, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and the University of Connecticut (beginning FY 2017). The RIDGE partnership institutions oversee the application, peer review, award, and performance processes of the research grants provided through the RIDGE Program. The institutions serve as a hub for mentoring and training researchers interested in food and nutrition assistance issues and provide a source of timely and accessible information on new research findings. RIDGE Program Activities, FY 2017 The newly established Tufts/UConn RIDGE Program announced a call for research projects in FY 2017. To evaluate the proposals, Tufts/UConn developed an online proposal and submission site through the FluidReview platform, formed an external advisory committee, and established a community of proposal reviewers and project mentors. A diverse set of projects was selected through this competitive review process, with input from ERS and FNS, for research to be conducted during FY 2017-18. Grants were awarded for: Is Food Assistance Like Cash for Retailers? Marianne Bitler, University of California, Davis The Effects of Disability, SNAP Participation and Changes in Benefits on Food Insecurity Seungyeon Cho, Texas A&M University, Texas AgriLife Research Does SNAP Encourage Claiming Disability Insurance Benefits? Emmanuel Drabo, Stanford University Understanding the Impact of Changes to the Child and Adult Care Food Program on Food Expenditures, Food Quality, and Young Children’s Dietary Intake in Urban Family Child Care Homes Erica Kenney, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Food Choices of SNAP/WIC Participants at Convenience Stores and Supermarkets Grace Melo, University of Georgia Multi-generational Effects of Prenatal and Early Life Access to SNAP Marianne Page, University of California, Davis The Impact of the Monthly SNAP Issuance Cycle on Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Purchasing and Implications for Policy Change Eric Rimm, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Does Universal Free School Meals Reduce Childhood Obesity? Michah Rothbart, Maxwell School, Syracuse University Organizational Readiness for Knowledge Translation and WIC Participation Naisi Zhao, Tufts University School of Medicine
Fiscal Year 2018 Economic research aimed at enhancing food security and dietary quality for low-income Americans through the Nation’s Nutrition Assistance Programs was a central theme of research funded through the RIDGE Program in FY 2017-2018. Findings from these RIDGE research projects were presented at the biennial conference held in Washington, DC, October 2018. Summaries of the studies were added to the ERS website at https://data.ers.usda.gov/FANRP-ridge-project-summaries.aspx. The research studies were: Do Universal Free School Meals Reduce Childhood Obesity? Michah Rothbart, Syracuse University The Impact of the Monthly SNAP Issuance Cycle on Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Purchasing and Implications for Policy Change Eric Rimm, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Does SNAP Encourage Claiming Disability Insurance Effects? Emmanuel Drabo, Johns Hopkins University The Effects of Disability, SNAP Participation and Changes in Benefits on Food Insecurity Seungyeon Cho, Texas A&M Multi-generational Effects of Prenatal and Early Life Access to SNAP Marianne Page, University of California, Davis Is Food Assistance Like Cash for Retailers? Marianne Bitler, University of California, Davis Food Choices of SNAP Participants at Convenience Stores and Large Retailers Grace Melo, University of Georgia Organizational Readiness for Knowledge Translation and WIC Participation Naisi Zhao, Tufts University School of Medicine Understanding the Impact of Changes to the Child and Adult Care Food Program on Food Expenditures, Food Quality, and Young Children’s Dietary Intake in Urban Family Child Care Homes Erica Kenney, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Fiscal Year 2019 The Tufts/UConn RIDGE Program announced a call for research projects in FY 2019. To evaluate the proposals, Tufts/UConn developed an online proposal and submission site through the FluidReview platform, formed an external advisory committee, and established a community of proposal reviewers and project mentors. A diverse set of projects was selected through this competitive review process, with input from ERS and FNS, for research to be conducted during FY 2019-2020. Seven grants were for faculty researchers (up to $50,000 each) and one grant was for postdoctoral research (up to $30,000). Grants were awarded for: Does maternal depression caused by food insufficiency influence parenting practices and impact infant wellbeing? The role of SNAP Irma Arteaga, University of Missouri SNAP and work-related policies: An in-depth analysis of low-wage worker perspectives and behaviors Caitlin Caspi, University of Minnesota Food insecurity and child food consumption patterns among WIC participating families in Los Angeles County within the context of the WIC food package change and WIC + SNAP concurrent participation M. Pia Chaparro, Tulane University Labor supply distortions from nutrition assistance programs: Evidence from a bunching estimator Jason Cook, University of Pittsburgh Understanding barriers to SNAP enrollment among college students Maggie Dickinson, CUNY Guttman SNAP, school meals, and the food security of multigenerational households Agustina Laurito, University of Illinois at Chicago Breakfast in the classroom, body mass index, and academic outcomes Michael Thomsen, University of Arkansas Did the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act Help Improve Dietary Quality among School-Age Children? Pourya Valizadeh, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fiscal Year 2020 Research projects funded by Tufts/UConn in FY 2019 will be completed during FY 2020 and findings presented at the biennial RIDGE Conference scheduled for Wednesday, Oct 14, 2020 at the APLU building. Additional activities of the Tufts/UConn RIDGE Program and awarding of further research projects are dependent upon availability of funding. FY 2012 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, Public Law 109-97, 7 U.S.C. 292, 411, 427, 1441a, 1621-1627, 1704, 1761-68, 2201, 2202, 3103, 3291, 3311, 3504; 22 U.S.C. 3101; 42 U.S.C. 1891-93; 44 U.S.C. 3501-11; 50 U.S.C. 2061 et seq, 2251 et seq. 2CFR Part 400, 2CFR Part 415, 2CFR Part 416, 7USC 3318c Any individual or organization in the U.S. and U.S. Territories is eligible to receive the popular or technical research publications that convey the research results, although there may be a fee. Any individual or organization in the U.S. and U.S. Territories is eligible to receive the popular or technical research publications that convey the research results, although there may be a fee. Not applicable. Preapplication coordination is not applicable. 2 CFR 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards applies to this program. Requests for technical information may be made to the Chief, Publishing and Communications Branch, Economic Research Service (ERS), 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Mail Stop 1800, Washington, DC 20520-1800. None. Not applicable. Not applicable. Not applicable. Not applicable. Not applicable. ERS performs economic research and analyses related to U.S. and world agriculture that addresses a multitude of economic concerns and decision making needs of Federal, State, and local governments, farmers, farm organizations, farm suppliers, marketers, processors, and consumers. There are no restrictions on the use of ERS produced information. Not applicable. N/A Financial records, supporting documents, statistical records, and all other records pertinent to an award shall be retained for a period of three years from the final expenditure report or, for awards that are renewed quarterly or annually, from the date of the submission of the quarterly or annual financial report, as authorized by the Federal awarding agency. Statutory formula is not applicable to this assistance listing.

Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. None None None/Not specified. Nancy A. Thomas
355 E Street SW, Room 5-254
Washington, DC 20024-3231 US
NThomas@ers.usda.gov
Phone: 202-694-5008 http://www.ers.usda.gov 12-1701-0-1-352 (Formula Grants (Cooperative Agreements)) FY 18$600,000.00; FY 19 est $0.00; FY 20 est $0.00; FY 17$600,000.00; FY 16$600,000.00; - Not applicable/available. Not applicable. Fiscal Year 2016 The impact of food assistance programs on consumption patterns, food choices, and nutritional outcomes is a central theme of research funded through the RIDGE Program in FY 2016. These projects will be presented at the RIDGE Conference scheduled in October 2016: The Effects of SNAP on Non-Food Consumption: An Instrumental Variables Approach Lorenzo Almada, School of Social Work, Columbia University Design Flaws: The Effect of the Coverage Gap in Food Assistance Programs on Children’s Well-Being Irma Arteaga and Colleen Heflin, School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri The Impact of Expanding the National School Meals Program on School Performance Joseph Price, Department of Economics, Brigham Young University, and Daniel Rees, Department of Economics, University of Colorado, Denver The Impacts of School Lunch Reforms on Student Outcomes Diane Schanzenbach, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University Identifying Multiple Patterns of Characteristics that Result in U.S. Urban and Rural Households having Very Low Food Security Using Classification Trees Edward Frongillo Jr., Maryah S. Fram, and Seul Ki Choi, University of South Carolina Community Eligibility and Child Well-Being Colleen Heflin, University of Missouri and Daniel P. Miller, Boston University School of Social Work Spatially Heterogeneous Effects of SNAP Participation and Food Insecurity on Hispanic Children’s Physical and Mental Health Shannon Monnat and Jennifer Van Hook, Pennsylvania State University Rural and Urban Comparisons of SNAP Participation, Neighborhood Effects, and Food Outlet Availability on Childhood and Adult Time with Normal and Obese Weight: Using the NLSY Thomas Vartanian, Bryn Mawr College Additionally, two RIDGE Doctoral Dissertation Grants were awarded in FY 2016: Obesity, Cultural Identity, and Food Distribution Programs in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Kasey Jernigan, University of Massachusetts; Supervising Professor, Tom Leatherman, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Exploring Race, Class, and Food Access across Different Geographic Scales Lillian MacNell, North Carolina State University; Supervising Professor, Sarah Bowen, North Carolina State University Also in FY 2016, an Interagency Agreement between the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and the Economic Research Service (ERS) was initiated to provide funding for the recompetition of a grant to establish a Research Center to administer the Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics (RIDGE) Program. The recompetition will (1) provide renewed focus on economic aspects of food and nutrition assistance research, (2) stimulate new and innovative research on domestic food and nutrition assistance issues by providing small grants for new analyses of the USDA major food and nutrition assistance programs, food security, and smaller, less studied programs such as the Summer Food Service Program, (3) broaden the support of both established and emerging scholars to increase the number and diversity of researchers who collaborate in tackling the unique food and nutrition challenges that exist across communities, regions, and States, and (4) achieve cost savings through administration of program activities at a single center. The Effects of SNAP on Non-Food Consumption: An Instrumental Variables Approach Lorenzo Almada, School of Social Work, Columbia University Design Flaws: The Effect of the Coverage Gap in Food Assistance Programs on Children’s Well-Being Irma Arteaga and Colleen Heflin, School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri The Impact of Expanding the National School Meals Program on School Performance Joseph Price, Department of Economics, Brigham Young University, and Daniel Rees, Department of Economics, University of Colorado, Denver The Impacts of School Lunch Reforms on Student Outcomes Diane Schanzenbach, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University Identifying Multiple Patterns of Characteristics that Result in U.S. Urban and Rural Households having Very Low Food Security Using Classification Trees Edward Frongillo Jr., Maryah S. Fram, and Seul Ki Choi, University of South Carolina Community Eligibility and Child Well-Being Colleen Heflin, University of Missouri and Daniel P. Miller, Boston University School of Social Work Spatially Heterogeneous Effects of SNAP Participation and Food Insecurity on Hispanic Children’s Physical and Mental Health Shannon Monnat and Jennifer Van Hook, Pennsylvania State University Rural and Urban Comparisons of SNAP Participation, Neighborhood Effects, and Food Outlet Availability on Childhood and Adult Time with Normal and Obese Weight: Using the NLSY Thomas Vartanian, Bryn Mawr College Using Geo-ethnography to Understand How Place and Space Matter in Issues of Food Access Lillian MacNell, North Carolina State University Also in FY 2016, an Interagency Agreement between the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and the Economic Research Service (ERS) was initiated to provide funding for the recompetition of a grant to establish a Research Center to administer the Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics (RIDGE) Program. The recompetition was implemented to (1) provide renewed focus on economic aspects of food and nutrition assistance research, (2) stimulate new and innovative research on domestic food and nutrition assistance issues by providing small grants for new analyses of the USDA major food and nutrition assistance programs, food security, and smaller, less studied programs such as the Summer Food Service Program, (3) broaden the support of both established and emerging scholars to increase the number and diversity of researchers who collaborate in tackling the unique food and nutrition challenges that exist across communities, regions, and States, and (4) achieve cost savings through administration of program activities at a single center. A grant was awarded to Tufts University and the University of Connecticut (Tufts/UConn) to jointly administer a program of sub-awards to investigators at universities and other institutions for research projects conducted during FY 2017-18. Tufts/UConn provides oversight of the application, peer review, sub-grant award, and quality-assurance processes of the RIDGE Program to (1) support food and nutrition assistance research at the national level as well as for specific populations, such as immigrants, Native Americans, people living in rural areas, or residents in areas who experience limited access to healthy foods; and (2) disseminate these research findings to a diverse stakeholder audience, including other researchers, policy and program officials, and the general public.
Fiscal Year 2017 Prior to FY 2017, the RIDGE program was administered in partnership with the RIDGE Center for National Food and Nutrition Assistance Research at the Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the RIDGE Center for Targeted Food and Nutrition Assistance Research at the Center for Regional Development, Purdue University. In October 2016, findings from research projects funded through these two RIDGE Centers in FY 2015 were presented at the annual RIDGE Conference. Also in FY 2017, summaries of these research studies were added to the ERS website at https://data.ers.usda.gov/FANRP-ridge-project-summaries.aspx. The studies were: • The Effects of SNAP on Non-Food Consumption: An Instrumental Variables Approach Lorenzo Almada, School of Social Work, Columbia University • Design Flaws: The Effect of the Coverage Gap in Food Assistance Programs on Children’s Well-Being Irma Arteaga and Colleen Heflin, School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri • The Impact of Expanding the National School Meals Program on School Performance Joseph Price, Department of Economics, Brigham Young University, and Daniel Rees, Department of Economics, University of Colorado, Denver • The Impacts of School Lunch Reforms on Student Outcomes Diane Schanzenbach, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University • Identifying Multiple Patterns of Characteristics that Result in U.S. Urban and Rural Households having Very Low Food Security Using Classification Trees Edward Frongillo Jr., Maryah S. Fram, and Seul Ki Choi, University of South Carolina • Community Eligibility and Child Well-Being Colleen Heflin, University of Missouri and Daniel P. Miller, Boston University School of Social Work • Spatially Heterogeneous Effects of SNAP Participation and Food Insecurity on Hispanic Children’s Physical and Mental Health Shannon Monnat and Jennifer Van Hook, Pennsylvania State University • Rural and Urban Comparisons of SNAP Participation, Neighborhood Effects, and Food Outlet Availability on Childhood and Adult Time with Normal and Obese Weight: Using the NLSY Thomas Vartanian, Bryn Mawr College • Using Geo-ethnography to Understand How Place and Space Matter in Issues of Food Access Lillian MacNell, North Carolina State University In FY 2016, the grant establishing a research center to administer the RIDGE program was recompeted. The new grant was awarded to Tufts/UConn to jointly administer a program of sub-awards to investigators at universities and other institutions for research projects conducted during FY 2017-18. In FY 2017, the newly established Tufts/UConn RIDGE Center announced a call for research projects. To evaluate the proposals, Tufts/UConn developed an online proposal and submission site through the FluidReview platform, formed an external advisory committee, and established a community of proposal reviewers and project mentors. A diverse set of projects was selected through this competitive review process, with input from ERS and FNS, for research to be conducted during FY 2017-18. Grants were awarded for: • Is Food Assistance Like Cash for Retailers? Marianne Bitler, University of California, Davis • The Effects of Disability, SNAP Participation and Changes in Benefits on Food Insecurity Seungyeon Cho, Texas A&M University, Texas AgriLife Research • Does SNAP Encourage Claiming Disability Insurance Benefits? Emmanuel Drabo, Stanford University • Understanding the Impact of Changes to the Child and Adult Care Food Program on Food Expenditures, Food Quality, and Young Children’s Dietary Intake in Urban Family Child Care Homes Erica Kenney, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health • Food Choices of SNAP/WIC Participants at Convenience Stores and Supermarkets Grace Melo, University of Georgia • Multi-generational Effects of Prenatal and Early Life Access to SNAP Marianne Page, University of California, Davis • The Impact of the Monthly SNAP Issuance Cycle on Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Purchasing and Implications for Policy Change Eric Rimm, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health • Does Universal Free School Meals Reduce Childhood Obesity? Michah Rothbart, Maxwell School, Syracuse University • Organizational Readiness for Knowledge Translation and WIC Participation Naisi Zhao, Tufts University School of Medicine
Fiscal Year 2018 The research projects funded by Tufts/UConn in FY 2017 were completed. Also in FY 2018, additional funding was provided to Tufts/UConn to jointly administer a program of sub-awards to investigators at universities and other institutions for research projects conducted during FY 2019-20.