Last week, the Census Bureau released data on poverty in the U.S. for 2022. We learned that, from 2021 to 2022, the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) increased by 60 percent overall and more than doubled among children. This significant increase in poverty is likely due to the end of pandemic-era programs and is one of many indicators that hunger is also on the rise.
Sunday September 10 is Grandparents Day. To address food insecurity among older adults, it is vital to leverage and invest in the federal nutrition programs for their proven ability to support the nutrition, health, and well-being of millions of older adults, and generate economic activity.
Federal nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) can be game-changers for grandfamilies, providing financial and nutritional support to ensure that caregivers and children are nourished and healthy. This work is more important than ever, given that older adults continue to grapple with high food prices and the impact of the COVID-19 public health and economic crisis.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania recently published a study utilizing national data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey to analyze the effect the end of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Emergency Allotments (EAs) have had on food insufficiency, which is not having enough to eat.
States are frequent labs of innovation for public policy and often model policies for Congress to pass nationwide. Eight states are doing just that by offering all students, regardless of household income, free school meals as they return to school this fall.
California, Maine, Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico, Vermont, Michigan, and Massachusetts have all passed free Healthy School Meals for All policies. Additionally, Nevada is putting pandemic funds to good use by offering one more year of free school meals to all students.
Support the Raise the Wage Act of 2023 (H.R.4889/S.2488). This legislation will boost workers’ wages by gradually increasing the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour by 2028 and give roughly 28 million Americans a long overdue raise. Increasing the minimum wage would significantly benefit working women and their families as well as help to promote racial justice.
Ultimately, to end hunger in the U.S., we must build an economy where growth and prosperity are shared in an equitable way. That means not only restoring the value of the minimum wage, but also supporting higher wages for struggling workers, enforcing wage and hour laws, creating more robust public and private jobs, and establishing parental leave policies and child care supports that make such work feasible. When we have accomplished this, then we can truly celebrate Labor Day.
