FRAC Chat

Last January, to support pediatricians in addressing food insecurity, The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) teamed up with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to launch Screen & Intervene: A Toolkit for Pediatricians to Address Food Insecurity.

A year later, FRAC’s Katie Jacobs and Geri Henchy joined Vice Chair of the AAP Council on Community Pediatrics, Dr. Kimberly Montez, and AAP’s Senior Policy Associate, Madeline Curtis in a training on implementing the Screen and Intervene framework in healthcare clinics with a focus on opportunities to connect children up to five years old and their families to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

This National Day of Racial Healing, we acknowledge the historic and current harms caused by racism, and the critical role conversations and relationships play in efforts to create a more fair and equitable society.

On January 17, we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a leader, father, husband, advocate, reverend, and activist. We reflect on his philosophical motives, role in the Civil Rights Movement, and ambitions to create a republic of liberated people.

FRAC and the Center on Budget and Policies Priorities’ new state fact sheets detail the positive impact the Build Back Better Act would have on child nutrition in every state. The $10 billion investment would allow more schools to offer free breakfast and lunch to all of their students through the Community Eligibility Provision and would create a nationwide Summer EBT program to help close the summer hunger gap.

In August 2017, the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) received a call from a social services agency north of Boston. A rising eighth-grader had contacted the agency because he thought his high school would not let him start school after Labor Day unless his mother paid off $220 in unpaid meal debt. His mother was severely disabled and not fluent in English. The 13-year-old was calling for help, advocating for himself.

MLRI learned that the district was “only” denying his participation in extracurricular activities like sports until his mom paid the $220. When digging further, MLRI discovered that the district had failed to directly certify the teen for free school meal status. He was getting Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits the entire time the meal debt was accruing but a school district administrative error never picked him up, subjecting him to harsh school meal debt policies. Thus began MLRI’s quest to never let another child suffer the indignities of unpaid meal debt.