FRAC Chat

By clear majorities, urban and rural Americans support expanding SNAP benefits permanently,[1] according to a recent Purdue University Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability (CFDAS) survey of 1,200 Americans across the country. The same poll found that nearly 1 in 7 (14.2%) of those surveyed reported being food insecure; the food insecurity rate among rural respondents was nearly 1 in 4 (23%).

Federally-funded SNAP Emergency Allotments (EAs) that boost SNAP benefits are still in place in most states, the District of Columbia, and territories, but are set to sunset when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Pandemic Public Health Emergency Declaration (PHE) is terminated. Unless Congress acts, however, when the PHE expires, on average, most SNAP households will lose $82 a person, a month, in SNAP benefits.

Under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), set in the 1970s, customers are prohibited from purchasing hot or prepared foods at the grocery store. This creates the counterintuitive experience in which consumers can purchase food items like chicken that is raw or frozen, but not a rotisserie chicken.
Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), a member of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Departmental Operations, has introduced legislation that would address this issue. With co-sponsors, Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), the SNAP Plus Act of 2021 (H.R. 6338) would permanently end the prohibition on hot prepared foods in SNAP.

With summer fast approaching, and Congress’s failure to extend the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) child nutrition waiver authority –which will significantly limit access to summer meals—, Pandemic EBT (P-EBT ) will be even more important this summer to both school-age and young children.
Children can utilize both the Pandemic EBT program as well as visit meal sites this summer. Summer P-EBT provides benefits to families on an EBT card to purchase food to replace the school meals they lost access to during the summer months. These complimentary programs can help ensure that children have access to healthy, nutritious meals throughout the summer. In the summer of 2021, 47 states, 3 territories, and the District of Columbia distributed an estimated $10.9 billion to families in Summer P-EBT benefits.
On May 9, USDA released its summer 2022 P-EBT guidance, which includes a Q&A, State Plan Template, and Policy Memo

In recognition of Older Americans Month, FRAC is releasing a two-part blog series on food insecurity among older adults.

Part 1 focuses on food insecurity’s prevalence among older adults as well as its disproportionate rates among Black and Latinx households and examines risk factors that make older adults more likely to experience food insecurity.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants are among those categorically eligible for discounts of up to $30 per month toward internet service. They also can “receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers if the household contributes more than $10 and less than $50 toward the purchase price.”

The discounts are provided for households with lower incomes through the new federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). In addition to households with a member participating in SNAP, ACP-eligible households also include those with a member eligible for the National School Lunch Program or National School Breakfast Program , and those in receipt of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Medicaid, SSI (Supplemental Security Income), Pell grants, federal housing assistance, or Lifeline. Households participating in the Food Distribution on Indian Reservations Program (FDPIR) or certain other tribal programs are also ACP-eligible; such households on tribal reservations can receive ACP internet discounts of up to $75 a month.