Browsing by Author "Cleary, Rebecca, committee member"

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Coping strategies among food insecure households above and below SNAP eligibility guidelines in a high cost of living region
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2025) Altares, Ana Maria, author; Mueller, Megan P., advisor; Bellows, Laura L., committee member; Cleary, Rebecca, committee member; Chennault, Carrie, committee member
This study explores how households in a high cost-of-living rural region navigate food-insecurity. We examine differences in coping strategies among households with income above and below 130% Federal Poverty Level (FPL) and highlight factors influencing food access among Hispanic/Latino households using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) and multimethod approach. First, a survey of 1,021 food-insecure adults above and below 130% FPL was conducted from December 2022 to March 2024, assessing the extent to which households relied on charitable food assistance and engaged in economic tradeoffs between food and other basic needs. Generalized ordinal logistic regressions analyzed differences between income groups. Second, a photovoice study with six Hispanic/Latino participants used documentary photography and focus groups to document food insecurity experiences through participant narratives and photographs. Participatory content analysis identified key factors influencing food access and navigating food insecurity. Survey findings indicated that participants above 130% FPL were more likely than those below to rely on food pantries (OR = 2.56), soup kitchens (OR = 2.00), and other charitable food sources (OR = 1.44) for the majority of their food. They also engaged in tradeoffs with medicine (OR = 1.65), utilities (OR = 1.30), transportation (OR = 1.21), childcare (OR = 1.18), and education (OR = 1.43) more often. Photovoice findings revealed participants' perceptions around food insecurity including lack of affordable foods and disparities in food access, a regional emphasis on production of grain over local produce which contributed to increased food prices, and local inequities prioritizing tourism over year-round residents. Participants relied heavily on food assistance to reduce hunger and provide additional financial support for food. They also engaged in acts of mutual aid such as volunteering and connecting others in need to food assistance resources as a way to give back to their own communities. The importance of family, culture, and health were also identified as important influences on food access. Households in this high cost-of-living region cope with the experience of being food insecure through both structural and community-based strategies. Those above 130% FPL rely heavily on charitable food assistance and economic tradeoffs, while Hispanic/Latino households employ social networks and cultural resilience. These findings highlight the need for policies and interventions that address food insecurity holistically, considering economic constraints, cultural preferences, and systemic barriers to equitable food access.
Open Access
Food insecurity among immigrant populations in the United States
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Norris, Caroline, author; Berning, Joshua, advisor; Cleary, Rebecca, committee member; Pena, Anita, committee member
As households immigrate to the United States, abrupt environmental changes may impact household food security, health, and productivity. Persistent, cultural food preferences may affect a household's ability to achieve food security when removed from their country of origin, resulting in a higher incidence of food insecurity (FI) for immigrant households. Alternatively, a positive immigrant self-selection effect could result in healthy, wealthy, and highly motivated households deciding to immigrate, thus leading to a scenario where immigrant households are less likely to be food insecure than their native counterparts. Using a subsample of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement, this study compares food security levels between immigrant and non-immigrant populations in the United States across Chinese, Indian, Mexican, and African immigrant populations and across varying household compositions. To compare the food security status of particular immigrant groups with their respective native counterparts, we implement a coarsened exact matching (CEM) method to match households on various observable characteristics. Following CEM, we estimate a linear probability model for each subgroup of matched strata, with immigrant status acting as the variable of interest. Additionally, we employ an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method to decompose differences in FI that are explained by mean native/immigrant differences in household characteristics and the relationship of those characteristics to FI. I find that immigrant populations vary greatly in FI incidence across both country of origin and household composition, and that the drivers of differential FI also varies between groups. For immigrants from Mexico and West Africa, immigrant status is associated with a 3.53% and 7.59% decrease in the likelihood of achieving household food security respectively. Conversely, for immigrants from India and China, immigrant status increases the likelihood of achieving food security, at 5.98% and 2.51% respectively. Among Mexican immigrants, differential characteristics are the primary driver of the gap of food security, namely differences in education and occupation endowments. For Chinese and West African immigrants, however, differential returns to characteristics are the primary drivers of the gap in food security.
Open Access
Three essays on food economics
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Mendis-Murukkuwadura, Sachintha Sarani, author; Bonanno, Alessandro, advisor; Berning, Joshua, committee member; Bayham, Jude, committee member; Cleary, Rebecca, committee member; Miller, Ray, committee member
This dissertation is comprised of three analyses of households' food acquisition behavior. In Chapter 2, we estimate the substitution between different food categories and time allocated to food purchase and preparation using a demand system which includes both the demand for time and that for goods, by extending the Exact Affine Stone Index-EASI (Lewbel & Pendakur, 2009). This is the first study estimating Resource Engel Curves (which characterize the relationship between "total resources" and resource share), and goods-time cross price elasticities. For this analysis we created a unique dataset by merging the 2012 American Time Use Survey (ATUS) with the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS), and perform the analysis for three sub-samples of households - 1) households participating in the SNAP program, 2) SNAP-eligible households that do not participate in the program, and 3) SNAP-ineligible households. The objective of Chapter 3 is to study the relationship between time allocated to different food related activities and households' diet quality of food acquisitions measured by their Healthy Eating Index - HEI, across the distribution of HEI. We utilize the same datasets developed in Chapter 2 and an Unconditional Quantile Regression estimator to perform the analysis on the same three sub-samples of households used in Chapter 2. In Chapter 4, we assess whether households whose children are exposed to Farm-to-School Programming show different fruits and vegetables purchasing patterns than those that are not. We matched two years of the USDA Farm to School Census (2013 and 2015) to Information Resource Incorporated Consumer Network Panel household-level data on Food-At-Home fruits and vegetables expenditures. We perform our analysis focusing on sub-samples of households residing in metro and non-metro areas, as well as by households below and above 185 percent of the poverty line.