FRAC Chat

Millions of older adults struggle with food insecurity. Given the harmful impacts of food insecurity on older adult health and well-being, it is critical that stakeholders, including community-based organizations, health providers, and public agencies, connect older adults to the range of available nutrition and food programs. Of paramount importance is connecting them to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is the only nutrition program available to all eligible older adults in every part of the country without the need for additional federal appropriations, or subject to a waitlist. A considerable body of evidence shows that SNAP plays a role in improving food security, economic security, health, and diets of older adults by helping them afford to put food on the table. However, one out of every two eligible older adults miss out on the benefits of SNAP.

On May 5, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a policy to improve equitable access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by including discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the prohibition against sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

As the USDA explained in its statement, “This action is in line with President Biden’s Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation, and is consistent with the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, in which the Court held that the prohibition on sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 extends to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

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