Media Contact:

Jordan Baker
jbaker@frac.org
202-640-1118

Statement attributable to Luis Guardia, president, Food Research & Action Center

WASHINGTON, January 15, 2021 — The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) applauds President-elect Joe Biden for introducing the American Rescue Plan to address the public health and economic crisis created by COVID-19. The pandemic has deepened America’s hunger crisis and Black and Latinx households have been particularly hard hit. The long-awaited food assistance outlined in this plan — called for by FRAC and its network of anti-hunger advocates for months — will go a long way in helping struggling households in all corners of the country put food on the table.

FRAC is pleased that, among other things, the plan:

  • Extends the 15 percent Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit increase from June 2021 to September 2021 and commits to extending those benefits for as long as the COVID-19 crisis continues as well as to work with Congress on automatic adjustments that reflect health and economic conditions.
  • Invests $3 billion over several years to help women, infants and children in low-income households get the nutrition they need through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
  • Enables a one-time emergency infusion of administrative support for state anti-hunger and nutrition programs to ensure that SNAP benefits get to families that need them most.
  • Provides U.S. Territories with $1 billion in additional nutrition assistance for their residents. Bolstering the Nutrition Assistance Program block grant will help thousands of working families in Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands put food on the table for the duration of the pandemic.

FRAC looks forward to working with the Biden-Harris Administration and Congress in enacting legislation that will strengthen proven federal nutrition programs and address the root causes of hunger, including racial inequity, lack of affordable housing, inadequate wages and insufficient job opportunities, to end hunger in America.

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For 50 years, the Food Research & Action Center has been the leading national nonprofit organization working to eradicate poverty-related hunger and undernutrition in the United States. To learn more, visit FRAC.org and follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.