FRAC Chat

It’s going to get a whole lot easier to feed New Jersey kids, thanks to a package of bills passed this spring by our state legislature. The new school breakfast laws will affect an estimated 500 schools educating nearly 308,000 students. Together, the bills have the potential to feed tens of thousands more children through the federal school breakfast and summer meals programs, while bringing millions more in federal reimbursements back to New Jersey.

FRAC’s longstanding partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), brought us — along with 3,000 principals from across the country — to the 2018 National Principals Conference to collaborate and share school breakfast strategies that can help improve student success. The conference was held in Chicago from July 11–13.

As the 2018 hurricane season is upon us, it is a good time to take stock of lessons learned from last year’s hurricanes and wildfires that triggered disaster nutrition assistance in many parts of the U.S. Now is the time to make sure states and their partners have the structures and plans in place to get swift and adequate food assistance, including Disaster SNAP (D-SNAP) to people in need should disasters hit in 2018.

When the bell rang in June to mark the end of the school year, children from low-income families in North Carolina lost access to the school meals they relied on during the school year. The Summer Nutrition Programs help close this gap by providing free meals to eligible children 18 and under at YMCAs, schools, churches, and libraries, among other safe sites, across the state. Not only do children stave off hunger as a result of summer meals, they also benefit from educational and recreational activities offered at the sites that keep them active, engaged, and better prepared to return to the classroom in the fall.

Too many seniors face challenges that get in the way of aging well. One of those challenges is not getting adequate nutrition, and, in some cases, having to choose between food and medicine.