FRAC Chat

Families with low incomes face difficult challenges in affording basics, from food and medicine to child care and housing. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) accounts for some of the other expenses a household has when determining how much to provide in food benefits. However, undercutting the positive impact of the SNAP shelter deduction is an arbitrary “cap” on the excess shelter costs that most SNAP families with children are allowed to claim. Removing the shelter cap and easing the food and rent squeeze is long overdue.

The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) has created a fact sheet with more information about the shelter cap policy, the harm it causes SNAP households, and policy solutions to lift the cap.

Two surveys released this month have found strong public support for enhanced Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding. They come as the White House is readying a plan to end hunger for release at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on Wednesday, September 28, and as members of Congress are identifying priorities for the 2023 Farm Bill.

Over the last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Census Bureau have released their respective annual reports on food insecurity and poverty in the United States.
The fact that rates of food insecurity did not increase in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic is a testament to the magnitude of the federal response to buoy households through unprecedented health and economic hardship.

This July, the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) and the Intertribal Agriculture Council (IAC) released Child Nutrition Reauthorization: Strengthening Programs in Tribal Communities, a policy brief that outlines recommendations aimed at improving the impact of the federal Child Nutrition Programs in Indian Country through the Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) process.

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act authorizes the federal child nutrition programs, which reach millions of children each day and support 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.
CNR presents a unique opportunity to improve federal policies that have exacerbated food insecurity in Indian Country. This can be done by focusing on supporting access to the Child Nutrition Programs for Native youth and incorporating Tribal sovereignty into efforts to improve program operations.

Millions of children eat school breakfast and lunch daily at schools across the nation. To better understand the far-reaching benefits of the School Nutrition Programs, The Rockefeller Foundation and The Center for Good Food Purchasing published True Cost of Food: School Meals Case Study in November 2021. The report used a True Cost Accounting methodology, which considers the multiple dimensions of a food product, program, or system, to examine the School Nutrition Programs.