FRAC Chat

Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) took to the Senate floor yesterday, July 1, to lead speeches on the urgency for the Senate to take up a COVID-19 recovery package that must include boosts to SNAP. Watch the speeches starting at the 10:27:42 mark. Senator Stabenow was joined by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Bob Casey (D-PA) in amplifying the urgent need to boost SNAP in the next COVID-19 recovery package. Other senators joined in on social media.

Community eligibility allows school districts to offer free school meals to all students. Here are five reasons to take a fresh look at community eligibility now.

Pride month (June) can be an important time for anti-hunger and anti-poverty advocates to reflect on the disparate rates of poverty and food insecurity among LGBTQ people, and think about work that can be done to address these disparities.

FRAC’s Senior Special Projects & Initiatives Associate, Susan Beaudoin, spoke with Tyrone Hanley, Esq., Senior Policy Counsel at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), to learn about the progress that has been made for the LGBTQ community and the challenges that remain. Tyrone co-convenes the National LGBTQ Anti-Poverty Action Network, of which FRAC is a member.

Although most schools have been shuttered since mid-March, the official end of the school year is here for many states, which means that school districts and sponsors across the country are launching or fine-tuning their summer nutrition programs. These programs are designed to replace school breakfast and lunch, filling a nutrition gap that exists for thousands of low-income children during the summer months.

Hunger and food insecurity is no stranger for Native Americans, who collectively make up self-governing communities throughout the United States known as Indian Country. Community food deficits are a pervasive fact of life, persisting for centuries for American’s first citizens. Traumatic events like pandemics amplify these circumstances. As COVID-19 numbers rise, so do the challenges and impacts on Native peoples’ health and access to food. In order to address the escalating health crisis caused by COVID-19, Tribal governments are justifiably closing their borders and businesses. Suppressing exposure to the pandemic is a solid, rational and critical step that Tribal governments must take to protect their citizens.