The Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (Summer EBT) Program is a proven method for decreasing food insecurity and increasing nutrition for children during the summer months. The program provides $120 per summer period per eligible child for households to use for groceries while school is out of session.
Across the U.S., the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is an economic mobility engine for struggling families and a cornerstone of national public health, economic resilience, and anti-poverty policy. More than 42 million people rely on SNAP each month, including over 16 million children.
This Week is CACFP Week, a national education and information campaign to raise awareness of how the USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program works to combat hunger.
This Week is CACFP Week, a national education and information campaign to raise awareness of how the USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program works to combat hunger. Learn more here.
In the early 1980s, the U.S. experienced a public reemergence of hunger — not because the country lacked food, but because federal policy choices tightened the “last-resort” systems that had helped Americans with low incomes weather recessions. The Reagan administration took office amid rising economic strain and subsequently pursued a broad package of tax breaks for the wealthy, along with cuts, reductions, and eligibility restrictions across low-income economic mobility programs, including the Food Stamp Program (now the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP). Those changes landed while unemployment and poverty were climbing, creating a predictable mismatch: need increased, but assistance became harder to access and less adequate.