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Congress must enact a child nutrition reauthorization bill that strengthens program access and supports participation by underserved children, ensures nutrition quality, and simplifies program administration and operation. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of the federal child nutrition programs, and several policy improvements that were made during COVID-19 should be implemented permanently by Congress. The reauthorization also should build on the critical gains — which improved access and nutrition — that were made in the last reauthorization.

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act authorizes all of the federal child nutrition programs.
The child nutrition programs reach millions of children each day and improve educational achievement,
economic security, nutrition, and health. Although most of the programs are permanently authorized, about every five years, Congress reviews the laws governing these programs through the reauthorization process. 

Grandparents are the primary caregiver for 6 percent of children under 6 years old. According to USDA, over 5 percent of WIC-eligible infants and children live in families without parents; 3.6 percent live with a related nonparent caretaker, and 1.7 percent live with an unrelated nonparent caretaker. The recommendations in the FRAC Fact Sheet focus on specialized outreach, policies, and services that can be used to help overcome barriers and maximize participation.

Produced with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this report evaluates food insecurity in New Jersey and proposes actionable recommendations to eliminate hunger across the state.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts across food and early care and education (ECE) systems that has exacerbated inequities and racial injustices in food, health, and education. While severely devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis, the ECE sector and food and agriculture systems are ripe with opportunity to build back with greater equity and resiliency. Farm to early care and education (farm to ECE) can be a component of building back better.

This report sheds light on the importance of the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for older adults and the positive impacts of the temporary increase in SNAP benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. SNAP — the nation’s first defense against hunger — is vital to participants’ food security, nutrition, and health, and to the economy.

The Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansion included in the American Rescue Plan is an investment. It has bolstered efforts to address hunger and its root causes — most notably poverty — by providing a lifeline for families with children to put food on the table; pay housing expenses, debts, and child care; and supplement lost wages due to the pandemic. 

FRAC’s 2022 School Breakfast and School Lunch Report found student participation in school breakfast and lunch dropped dramatically across the country when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and school nutrition programs are still recovering.

As of January 3, seven states have been approved to distribute Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) benefits for school-age children in the 2021–2022 school year. Of these states, only Michigan has been approved to use simplifying assumptions for the predominant models of learning as opposed to tracking student-level data. Learn more about how Michigan is calculating P-EBT benefits.

Poor nutrition, poverty, and food insecurity have detrimental impacts on infant, child, and maternal health and well-being. Connecting patients to WIC is an evidence-based strategy to address these issues. This resource provides information about WIC and the importance of referring eligible people to this critical Child Nutrition Program.

The House-passed Build Back Better (BBB) Act (H.R. 5376) would make historic investments in proven child nutrition programs. The Act would increase the number of schools that can offer meals to all students at no charge through the Community Eligibility Provision and it would create a nationwide Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program. Combined, these provisions would help reduce hunger, improve health, and support children’s academic achievement in states across the U.S.

Native American communities remain resilient in the face of disproportionately high rates of poverty, hunger, unemployment, and poor health, both before and during COVID19. For American Indian and Alaska Native communities, disparities in food insecurity are a result of the structural racism originating with colonization and continuing to the present.

The NIH issued a Request for Information (RFI), “Research Opportunities to End Hunger, Food and Nutrition Insecurity,” to solicit feedback on innovative and multidisciplinary research avenues to address the systemic factors underlying hunger. FRAC responded to this RFI.

As part of the effort to implement Executive Order 13985, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” USDA issued a Request for Information to help them identify opportunities in current USDA policies, regulations, and guidance to address systemic inequities. FRAC submitted a comment in response to this request.

As part of the effort to implement Executive Order 13985, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a Request for Information (RFI) on how agencies could internally assess the state of equity in their policies, programs, services, processes, and operations. FRAC submitted a comment in response to this request.