LibGuides: Government Information and Priya Fielding-Singh's How the Other Half Eats: Home

Introduction for this 2024 WSU Common Reading Talk/Workshop/Whatever

This research guide was created for my (Lorena's) October 29th Common Reading 2024 talk - you can find a Zoom recording of it (with transcript) here. Yes, I'm a bit goofy, but I do love government information, and it runs all through How the Other Half Eats! This guide pulls out examples and discusses how you can find more information.

I'll add the search examples I did to it over the next week or so.

The book and this talk

Keyword search term bank:

food insecurity, food security, food scarcity, food equity

nutritional inequality, food hardship, poverty, SNAP, WIC,

inequality... what else?

Book cover for Priya Fielding-Singh's book, How the Other Half Eats.

Source Spotlight: PolicyMap (subscribed database)

PolicyMap: Food Deserts, "Social Determinants of Health" and more
"PolicyMap is an online data and mapping tool for creating custom reports of data related to demographics, real estate, health, jobs, the environment, education and more. Data comes from authoritative public and proprietary sources. It has thousands of indicators on demographics, the economy, housing, lending, quality of life, education, health, and more. Data is available at the neighborhood census block group in many cases, up to a national level, depending on the data."
Social Determinants of Health (US CDC)
Consider as a broader theme for Arline Geronimus' "Weathering Hypothesis" that Dr Priya Feilding-Singh discusses.
Social determinents of Health (World Health Organization)

Executive Agencies: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Look under WSU librarian David Lufig's great Agricultural Sciences Research Guides - for more resources and WSU -subscribed stuff.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
USDA: National Agriculture Library (NAL)
"The National Agricultural Library (NAL) is one of five national libraries of the United States. It houses one of the world's largest collections devoted to agriculture and its related sciences."
Look under Topics, and under Research Tools.
Search: "smart snacks"
(this is the non-WSU version - look under librarian David Lufig's Agricultural Sciences Research Guides for more WSU -subscribed stuff)
USDA Economic Research Service
"The mission of USDA's Economic Research Service is to anticipate trends and emerging issues in agriculture, food, the environment, and rural America and to conduct high-quality, objective economic research to inform and enhance public and private decision making."
Home -> Topics -> Food & Nutrition Assistance -> Food Security in the U.S.

Source Spotlight: The National Academies Press (NAP)

The National Academies Press
"The National Academies Press (NAP) publishes the publications of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. NAP publishes more than 200 publications per year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and medicine, providing authoritative, independently researched information on important matters in science and health policy."

Executive Agencies: Department of Commerce: US Census

Demographic data - and much, much more...

US Census Bureau
"The Census Bureau is dedicated to providing current facts and figures about America’s people, places, and economy."
Example: Topics --> Poverty
Census Bureau Resource Library
State and County QuickFacts (U.S. Census)
Gives a good overview of statistical information for states, counties, and cities. Links to additional (more detailed) data from sources such as American FactFinder, the American Community Survey, population projections, etc. Probably all you will need for this assignment.
Household Pulse Surveys (ultra recent)
"The U.S. Census Bureau, in collaboration with multiple federal agencies, is in a unique position to produce data on critical social and economic matters affecting American households. The Household Pulse Survey was designed to deploy quickly and efficiently, collecting data to measure how emergent issues are impacting U.S. households from a social and economic perspective. Data will be disseminated in near real-time to inform federal and state action."
Census Surveys: The American Community Survey
Does surveys in 1-, 3-, and 5-year series. Updates the official Census.
Explore Census Data - U.S. Census Bureau
Use this to locate statistical info, in tables (excel format), maps, and more, from all Census sources.

Source Spotlight: Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports
All non-confidential CRS Reports are now available (or becoming available) on congress.gov

Executive Agencies: Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
"The mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans, by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services."

A terrible website. Really.

Source Spotlight: govinfo

govinfo
GovInfo is a service of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO), which is a Federal agency in the legislative branch.
GovInfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government."

Everything is full-text. Filtering is essential!

Legislation - Bills and Laws

Congress.gov
Search for legislation, committee publications, the Congressional Record, nominations and more. Current and historical (but historical coverage varies by type)
Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010

Conclusion: College Students

"Hunger on campus: why US PhD students are fighting over food" / Nature
5/3/24
Congress Can End the College Hunger Crisis
Inside Higher Ed, 10/2/24
"Mildred García and John B. King, Jr. write that complex rules for accessing federal SNAP benefits leave too many students hungry"
GAO Report on Students' Food Insecurity Highlights SNAP Gap / Iside Higher Ed
"The latest federal study on food insecurity among college students underscores the need for more systemic changes to the federal food-assistance program."
7/25/24

Lagniappe: Policy Reports and Industry Reports

Policy Commons
"Policy Commons is a one-stop platform where researchers, academics, librarians, and students discover, access and share millions of publications from the world’s leading policy experts, think tanks, IGOs, and NGOs."
Note: You must create a free account; you'll get 15 searches a month. Some reports are only available to paying subscribers.

Statista
"Statista provides access to statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources on over 600 industries."
WSU is a subscriber

Not a policy or industry report, but I wanted to squeeze it in...
(Statistics about single mothers, from the Federal Reserve.)

There is so much more info available through government sources -

Department of Housing and Urban Development - Section 8, housing costs
Department of Labor- the working poor
Federal Trade Commission - food marketing to children and adolescents
Department of Labor and its Bureau of Labor Statistics - employment, poverty, disability
Centers for Disease Control - National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) - poor nutrition
etc.

Libraries

Government Information and Priya Fielding-Singh's How the Other Half Eats

About Lorena (Click on photo for more)