FRAC Chat

When the COVID-19 pandemic spread across America, school food service workers brought their mission to the forefront of America’s attention, reminding the nation of the importance of the child nutrition programs. With school buildings closed, before masks or social distancing, months before a vaccine was available, school nutrition professionals came out of their kitchens to serve their community. Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS), in collaboration with the Baltimore Museum of Industry, has recognized that heroic effort and the work cafeteria professionals do daily in their current exhibition “Food For Thought: Spotlighting Food Service Workers at Baltimore City Public Schools”.

Emergency Allotments will end in D.C. on February 28. This comes at a time when many families are still trying to recover from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and are now seeing unprecedented inflation at the grocery store. These factors will lead to what many call a “hunger cliff,” where households are seeing a large decrease in benefits that makes it more difficult to put food on the table. This will worsen the hardship that many are already facing, widen racial disparities in food access and food insecurity, and increase food insecurity in households with children. The loss of SNAP EAs also will negatively impact our economy.

For 2.5 million children around the U.S., grandparents, other relatives, or close family friends show an ultimate form of love each day by stepping up to raise these children when their parents are unable to do so. These families, known as grandfamilies or kinship families, provide needed stability, connection, and care.

Many grandfamilies face struggles with the sudden expansion of the household. Grandparents and other caregivers may be on a fixed income, have to move from older adult housing to more expensive housing that allows children, or have other circumstances that make it difficult to put food on the table. A quarter of grandparent-headed households reported experiencing food insecurity, according to a Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) analysis conducted for Generations United.

This Valentine’s Day, the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) is asking people to share why they love free healthy school meals for all. And there is a lot to love. Join the social media conversation and tag @fractweets on Twitter and @fracgram on Instagram to share why you love #schoolmeals4all.  Visit www.freeschoolmealsforall.org to stay up to date on all the latest information.

This blog is Part 2 of a two-part series focused on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and eligible immigrant families. The following blog examines opportunities to address barriers that impede immigrant access to SNAP. Part 1 reviews key SNAP participation data trends and lifts up the importance of the new Biden administration public charge rule as a critical step in helping to reverse SNAP participation decreases among eligible immigrant households.