Resource Library

This series of state fact sheets provides state-specific data (compared to national data) on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation rates among eligible seniors, SNAP participation rates among households with seniors, and the percentage of households with seniors struggling with food insecurity.

During the summer, far too many children and adolescents experience food insecurity, weight gain, and learning loss, compromising their health and ability to thrive during summer break and beyond. A key strategy to address these issues is to connect more students — especially low-income students — to high-quality summer meal and enrichment programs, which support student food security, health, and learning. This brief first summarizes important research on summertime food insecurity, weight gain, and learning loss, and then describes the value and effectiveness of the federal Summer Nutrition Programs and summer enrichment programming.

FRAC’s communications toolkit for states includes a model news release for states to customize, sample social media, graphics, a video, and more.

Kansas communities have come together to serve thousands more meals year after year to kids through the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). SFSP in Kansas: Replicable Strategies to Increase Summer Meals Participation highlights best practices to expand SFSP and demonstrate replicable strategies for advocates in other states.

This primer examines the importance of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in improving the health, nutrition, and well-being of millions of senior adults (age 60 and older) struggling against hunger, and it summarizes opportunities to expand this vital program to reach more seniors across the country.

This guide provides steps to start and strengthen the School Nutrition Programs in charter schools.

The guide is divided into five sections:

Part I: School Nutrition Program Basics;

Part lI: Initial Steps for Navigating the School
Nutrition Programs;

Part llI: Overcoming Administrative
Challenges;

Part IV: Addressing Facility Challenges:
Cafeterias, Kitchens, Equipment, and
Storage; and

Part V: Making the Finances Work Using
Best Practices.

This interactive map provides state-by-state data on SNAP participation rates among eligible seniors and for comparison, participation rates among all eligible individuals. FRAC’s map and accompanying tables show that just 42 percent of eligible seniors are using SNAP on average each month.  

Federal tax credits, like the EITC and refundable CTC, provide critical supports for millions of working women, children, and families every year. They supplement low wages and can help soften the financial impact of fluctuating incomes or job losses. These credits are especially important for communities of color and women.

Includes: The Strength of SNAP and SNAP Action Needed; The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP); Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP); Child Nutrition Reauthorization

Restoring the value of the minimum wage — and helping families cover basic needs — is essential to addressing hunger. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour has not increased since 2009. A more adequate minimum wage would foster the nation’s economic strength and growth to be shared in more equitable ways. Low-income workers and their families would benefit the most from a higher minimum wage, leading to reduced poverty, hunger, and income inequality.

From FRAC, the Economic Policy Institute, and the National Employment Law Project.

The monthly benefits provided by SNAP enhance the foodpurchasing power of eligible low-income individuals and families. However, as described by many studies, including one by the Institute of Medicine, the greatest shortcoming of SNAP is that benefits for most households are not enough to get through the entire month without hunger or being forced to sacrifice nutrition quality. This limitation persists even in the face of overwhelming evidence on the gains from more adequate monthly SNAP benefits.

This paper briefly analyzes why SNAP benefits are inadequate, reviews the body of research showing positive effects from more adequate SNAP benefits, and concludes with some of the key policy solutions that can improve benefit adequacy.

More than 37 million Americans are living in households that are food insecure. Even as the economy has improved, millions of families have been left behind, and need food assistance. Congress should deepen its historically bipartisan commitment to programs that provide food assistance to vulnerable people with low incomes by protecting the structure of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the other federal nutrition programs, and by sufficiently funding them to address the prevailing need.

On February 1, USDA published a Proposed Rule on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): Requirements for Able-Bodied Adults without Dependents RIN 0584-AE57. That rule, if adopted, would make changes to SNAP that Congress specifically declined to make in the recently enacted 2018 Farm Bill. The proposed changes would decrease state flexibility, harm local economies, and increase hunger. They should be rejected.

When considering adopting community eligibility, schools often question how its implementation might affect the allocation of certain federal funds, specifically Title I funding. This concern arises because under community eligibility, schools no longer process school meal applications, and the percentage of students certified for free and reduced-priced school meals are commonly used to distribute Title I funds to schools. Fortunately, there are other allowable measures that school districts with community eligibility can use to allocate Title I funds. This resource provides answers to frequently asked questions regarding the relationship between community eligibility and the allocation of Title I funds.

On Monday, February 12, President Trump released his fiscal year (FY) 2019 budget proposal. One key component: devastating proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that reflect a total disregard of the critical role SNAP plays as a first line of defense against hunger and poverty for tens of millions of Americans. See a statement by FRAC’s president on the cuts. This report is a summary of the proposed reductions to SNAP and an overview of how other critical nutrition and social safety net programs fare in the president’s budget.