Giving Compass' Take:

• NPR interviews South Carolina researchers about the connections between poor math scores from students whose families are on food stamps. 

• What are the next steps for mitigating challenges for students that revolve around hunger and academic performance?

• According to the United States Department of Agriculture, all 50 states have now made it easier to receive SNAP benefits. 

South Carolina researchers have drawn a connection between low-income students' poor performance on math tests and the time of month when their families run low on food stamps. Poor families who rely on food stamps often find themselves caught in a familiar cycle. In the days after they receive the benefit each month, there's plenty of food on the table. But as the weeks tick away, food becomes scarce.

Here with some new research on the consequences of this monthly cycle is NPR's social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam:

 

KELLY: It seems like it kind of makes sense, that if you're hungry you can't concentrate so you might test lower. How do they know, though, that this is the food-stamp cycle, that that's what's responsible?

VEDANTAM: Well, it has to do with two quirks in the way the food-stamp program is administered in South Carolina. Recipients receive benefits on the first 10 days of the month. Some families get it on the first, some on the second and so on. Simultaneously, children in grades three through eight also have to take an annual math exam on the second Wednesday of May. Now, the second Wednesday of May falls on different dates each year. So if your family received food stamps on the 10th of April, for example, and the exam falls on the 8th of May, you're likely to have gone hungry for several days before you took the test.

KELLY: And to be clear, people don't all get their food stamps on the same day. It's...

VEDANTAM: Precisely.

KELLY: ...Scattered around the month.

VEDANTAM: Exactly. Now, on the other hand, if your family received food stamps on the 2nd of May and the test is on the 8th of May, you've probably eaten well in the days before the test.

Read the full interview about food stamps and academic performance by Shankar Vedantam at NPR