FRAC Chat

The American Society on Aging’s annual conference drew thousands of attendees to Atlanta, Georgia, last month to participate in sessions on topics ranging from how to be anti-ageist to developing age-friendly and climate-smart communities.

I presented a poster session on how the pandemic only worsened food insecurity and the health of millions of older adults. Black, Latinx, and Native American older adults disproportionately faced struggles putting food on the table due to underlying structural discrimination and other inequities.
During the conference, I had the chance to meet with aging experts from across the country and learn more about how their organizational work intersects with efforts to address hunger among older adults.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) provides a lifeline of cash assistance –at a maximum amount of $914 per month – for millions of people who are disabled, blind, or age 65 or over, and have low incomes and limited resources.
However, woefully outdated and punitive financial rules mean SSI participants struggle to put food on the table. One such rule, the in-kind support and maintenance (ISM) rule, means that recipients can see their SSI checks cut by one-third (to $609 or less a month) if they get help from friends or family with paying rent or buying groceries. Not surprisingly, food insecurity rates are most prevalent among SSI recipients compared to recipients of other disability assistance programs.
Anti-hunger advocates can weigh in before Monday, April 17, to oppose one harmful aspect of the current ISM rule, as well as continue to advocate for broader improvements to SSI.

In recognition of Women’s History Month, FRAC staff and Congressional Hunger Center fellows shared their perspectives and expertise on how best to address food insecurity impacting individuals identifying as women.
According to FRAC research on the intersection between hunger, poverty and health, in 2020, during COVID-19 women were more likely than men to report food insufficiency, which is not having enough to eat. For example, in December 2020, 55 percent of respondents who sometimes or often reported not having enough to eat were women. In 2019, 28.7 percent of households with single mothers were food insecure compared to 15.4 percent of single-father households.

Across the country, we need a system of school meals that serves all children and values the people who get it to the table. That’s why National Farm to School Network (NFSN) is advocating for values-aligned universal meals focused on equity for the most impacted stakeholders across the food system. We are pleased to work with partners from across the country, including Food Research & Action Center, we created the “Who’s at the Table School Meals Campaign” to provide tools that communicate how our shared values can create healthy school meals for all kids that transform our food system, and advocate for the policies to do that.

This Congress is indeed a tale of very of two very different perspectives. Even as a “hunger cliff” is hitting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) households in March, and tens of millions of people are losing an average of $82 a person a month in grocery money, some conservatives are pushing for harsh changes to further undermine SNAP’s access for unemployed and underemployed people.