< Back to front page Text size – +

Food prices outstrip food stamps, Boston survey finds

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Elizabeth Cooney September 19, 2008 01:33 PM

Facebook
E-mail

Families that receive the highest level of food stamps still have to spend thousands of dollars a year to meet basic food needs, a joint report from Boston and Philadelphia says.

In Boston the gap is $2,250 a year and in Philadelphia it's $3,165, according to researchers led by John Cook of Boston Medical Center and Mariana Chilton of Drexel University School of Public Health. Low-income families in the two cities also couldn't necessarily find the foods recommended by the government's Thrifty Food Plan in their neighborhoods. In Boston, 16 percent of the stores didn't stock healthier choices such as whole grains, fresh vegetables, and low-fat milk and cheese. In Philadelphia, 38 percent didn't have these choices.

"The Thrifty Food Plan is not keeping up with the changing world and steadily increasing food prices," the report from the Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program says.

The project was funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation and the Claneil Foundation; Project Bread supported a 2004 pilot for the program.

Facebook
E-mail

« Back to front page

About white coat notes

White Coat Notes covers the latest from the health care industry, hospitals, doctors offices, labs, insurers, and the corridors of government. Chelsea Conaboy previously covered health care for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Write her at cconaboy@boston.com. Follow her on Twitter: @cconaboy.

Daily Dose | More Health&Wellness

How well someone will recover from stroke?

The first factor that influences a person’s recovery from a stroke is the nature of the stroke itself: how much damage occurred in the brain and where.

Submit a question