June, the beginning of the Atlantic Ocean’s hurricane season, is a good time to highlight disaster preparedness and the role of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in helping to reduce hunger and food insecurity before, during, and after a disaster.
Participation in community eligibility — a powerful tool for high-need schools to offer breakfast and lunch at no cost to all students while eliminating the need for families to fill out school meal applications — is growing across the nation, according to a new FRAC report released this month. Community Eligibility: The Key to Hunger-Free Schools, School Year 2018–2019 shows that nearly 13.6 million children in nearly 28,500 schools across the country (64 percent of all eligible schools) are using the provision in the 2018–2019 school year.
This post was originally published on May 22 as a part of the Mission Possible blog series from Nonprofit VOTE and Independent Sector. The series explores “the different ways a variety of nonprofits are embedding voter engagement into their work.”
As it does every June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) this month will calculate the cost of a bare-bones market basket (the Thrifty Food Plan), which will serve as the basis for setting the maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit allotment for the fiscal year starting in October 2019. Because of flawed assumptions behind the plan, the USDA’s pricing will leave SNAP households without enough benefits to afford a month’s worth of nutritious food.
Across the nation, final exams were not the only thing causing stress for college students as the academic year came to an end: too many college students faced food insecurity. Mounting research demonstrates that the lack of resources to meet basic needs, including food, remains far too prevalent among college students, disrupting their ability to succeed.
