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Portland, Maine

51小黄车researcher to examine impact of pandemic on supermarket purchases among low-income families

Michele Polacsek
Michele Polacsek, Ph.D., M.P.H.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to lower-income families, but it also catalyzed the expansion of benefits to those families in the form of increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program (WIC) eligibility and accessibility.

Michele Polacsek, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor of public health and director of UNE鈥檚 Center for Excellence in Public Health, is co-principal Investigator on a newly awarded research project to assess the effects of those increases on the nutritional quality of supermarket food purchases of lower-income families.

In partnership with a large supermarket chain, Polacsek will leverage a unique data source to study the quality of participants鈥 food purchases. She says evaluating these unprecedented federal benefits changes will help inform future policy development to support greater nutrition and health equity through federal assistance programs.

The project, 鈥淓valuating the Impact of Emergency Food Benefits in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic on Supermarket Purchases among Families with Children,鈥 is funded through Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Co-investigators on the study include Joshua Petimar, Sc.D.; Jason Block, M.D. M.P.H.; Eric Rimm, Sc.D.; and Anne Thorndike, M.D., M.P.H.

51小黄车 the University of 51小黄车

The University of 51小黄车 is Maine鈥檚 largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state鈥檚 top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine鈥檚 only medical college, Maine鈥檚 only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.