COMBATING FOOD INSECURITY IN THE U.S. NAVY
Loading...
Authors
Lee, Alan J.
Subjects
food insecurity
Basic Needs Allowance
BNA
predicting risk
readiness
military family
Basic Needs Allowance
BNA
predicting risk
readiness
military family
Advisors
Heissel, Jennifer A.
Date of Issue
2023-03
Date
Publisher
Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
To combat food insecurity, the Department of the Navy will increase the Basic Needs Allowance (BNA) total household income requirement up to 150% of the Federal Poverty Guideline (FPG) in accordance with the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023. This thesis uses machine learning techniques on comparable civilian data to create a model that best predicts the risk of food insecurity and the characteristics of Sailors who are food insecure. To measure the effectiveness of the BNA, this study simulates the increase in total household income up to 130% and 150% FPG, with and without the Basic Allowance for Housing included in the total household income calculation, and reruns the prediction model to see the changes in predicted risk of food insecurity. The model suggests that 17.6% of Sailors are food insecure. Additionally, the BNA in each simulation insignificantly decreases the food insecurity rate. Less than 1% of Sailors qualify for the BNA, while 17% are predicted to be food insecure. Therefore, the BNA provides an insufficient amount of allowance to an inadequate number of families to effectively reduce food insecurity in the Navy.
Type
Thesis
Description
Series/Report No
Department
Department of Defense Management (DDM)
Organization
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
NPS Naval Research Program
This project was funded in part by the NPS Naval Research Program.
This project was funded in part by the NPS Naval Research Program.
Funder
Format
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.