FRAC Chat

According to the most recent national food insecurity data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, rates of food insecurity were high for households headed by African Americans — 21.2 percent — two and a half times the rate for white, non-Hispanic households. Several factors have been found to contribute to this disparity, including racial discrimination, poverty, unemployment, incarceration, and disability.

In recognition of Black History Month, FRAC honors the legacy of Black leadership on issues of hunger and poverty.

Here are five profiles of Black civil rights, anti-hunger, and anti-poverty advocates.

Unfortunately, on January 27th, a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision lifted the nationwide injunction that was preventing the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) public charge rule from going into effect. This decision clears a path for the administration to implement the public charge rule within the United States, except for in Illinois, which has gained a statewide injunction of its own. 

The DHS US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) indicated that it will begin implementing the Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds final rule (“Final Rule”) on February 24, 2020.

During the 2018–2019 school year, 14.6 million children with 12.4 million of them from low-income families started the day right with a nutritious school breakfast, according to FRAC’s annual School Breakfast Scorecard, released today.

From March 1–3, anti-hunger advocates from around the country will once again descend on Washington, D.C. for the National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference to share and learn best practices and innovative strategies for ending hunger.

Let me start by thanking everyone involved in tonight’s event – those who organized it; those who supported it; everyone who came – some from far away (including some from California); those who have said nice things about me tonight; and those who complied with my request to drop certain pictures out of the slide show.

And I also want to thank my wonderful family – Judy, and my children Andy and Jennie who are here tonight. And I deeply thank FRAC’s staff and Board for their commitment, work, support and tolerance of my idiosyncrasies over these last 22 years. As all those of you who run organizations know, we CEOs get more credit than we deserve and less blame than we deserve. And that is certainly true for me.