Now is the time to get your school meals advocacy gear ready to support schools, school meals, and students by helping to expand free school meals for all. Use these FRAC resources to learn the school meals basics and spread the word in your community about Healthy School Meals for All, so that every school year all children have the nutrients they need to thrive and make it their best school year ever.
Lack of access to food is a major concern when natural disasters strike.
As we head into September, which is National Disaster Preparedness Month, there have been 15 confirmed weather-related disasters in the U.S. this year – with losses exceeding $1 billion each.This includes the devastating wildfires in Hawaii and California, the heavy rains that caused landslides and unprecedented flooding in Vermont and New Hampshire, and the drought conditions impacting numerous Midwestern states. Overall, these events have resulted in the loss of lives, homes, property, and food, causing significant economic effects on the impacted areas.
Disaster SNAP (D-SNAP) and other federal nutrition programs play a critical role in mitigating spikes in food insecurity during such challenging times. This is due to their ability to expedite and strengthen the response to disasters of various types.
Momentum for Healthy School Meals for All is building.
Eight states, California, Maine, Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico, Vermont, Michigan , and Massachusetts, have passed policies to permanently offer free school meals to all students, and Nevada has extended free school meals for all through the 2023–2024 school year. These policies will ensure that all students are hunger-free and ready to get the most out of their school day.
The White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health encourages the health care sector to “screen for food insecurity and connect people to the services they need.” A recently released report, Health Care Provider Survey Findings: Addressing Food Insecurity Among Older Adults — Health Care Provider Beliefs, Practices, and Resources, produced by FRAC in collaboration with AARP Foundation, underscores how health care providers are doing just that by screening patients for food insecurity and connecting them to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other federal nutrition programs and food resources.
The report details the findings from a survey of health care providers around the country about their beliefs and practices related to addressing food insecurity among older adults. It also highlights key recommendations for supporting health care providers in this work.
In recognition of the 33rd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it’s time to double down on realizing the act’s goal of prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities in all areas of public life. While there has been great progress, much work remains to achieve the goal of economic security and justice for disabled people in the U.S. Ensuring that all disabled people have access to the nutrition they need to thrive is foundational to this goal.
Improving access to and strengthening the federal nutrition programs is a key strategy to help address the alarming rates of hunger among people with disabilities. These programs are our nation’s most important, proven, and cost-effective public interventions to address food insecurity.
