Yale, Simmons get grants to study food programs

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Yale University and Boston's Simmons College are being awarded federal grants to research government-funded food and nutrition assistance programs.

Those programs include the former food stamp program now known as SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — and the related program WIC, which stands for Women, Infants and Children.

Yale is receiving $265,000 from the U.S. Agriculture Department to study whether recent WIC changes influenced recipients to buy fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lower-fat milk.

The $200,000 grant to Simmons College will be used to study the ability of people of different races and ethnicities to ensure their households have food, and how that's affected by the length of their participation in WIC.