Resource Library

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) empowers program participants to make choices about what food is right for them. Through SNAP, people with lived experience of hunger and poverty can make decisions for themselves and their families, and use their purchasing power to make those decisions without shame or stigma. Learn why protecting SNAP choice is so urgent in FRAC’s latest research brief. 

School meals are an important tool for combatting childhood food insecurity, yet far too many children missed out on the nutrition they need for their health and learning with the expiration of the pandemic-era nationwide waivers that allowed schools to offer school meals to all students at no charge, according to FRAC’s latest report. Learn more in The Reach of School Breakfast and Lunch During the 2022–2023 School Year.

Congress must adhere to bipartisan and public support to preserve consumer choice for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the FY 2024 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, the upcoming Farm Bill, and any other legislative vehicles. Learn more about preserving consumer choice in SNAP in FRAC’s latest-one pager. 

School lunch participation in the five states that implemented Healthy School Meals for All policies during the 2022–2023 school year increased compared to prepandemic participation levels. Learn more in FRAC’s latest report, The State of Healthy School Meals for All: California, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Vermont Lead the Way.

The bipartisan 2018 Farm Bill directed USDA to update the Thrifty Food Plan. The resulting update in 2021 was the first in the plan’s history and led to a necessary and long overdue increase in SNAP benefits. Learn why the Thrifty Food Plan adjustment should be protected from efforts to eliminate or weaken it in the 2024 Farm Bill and in other legislation in FRAC’s new one-pager, Continuing the Thrifty Food Plan Adjustment Is Good for Everyone. 

FRAC’s Food Fuels Futures: Expanded SNAP Eligibility Reduces Hunger Among College Students research brief — informed by interviews with college students — sets forth reasons why SNAP student eligibility expansions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic were so vital to college students and why decision-makers should build on these lessons and eliminate the “work-to-eat rule” so that more college students can focus on learning rather than being distracted by hunger. 

Leveraging CACFP for Farm to Early Care and Education: Growing Wins Across Early Childhood and Food System Sectors aims to assist states in combatting child hunger by exploring options to boost the Child and Adult Care Food Program by leveraging Farm to Early Care and Education (Farm to ECE). 

The permanent, nationwide Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (Summer EBT) Program is set to begin in summer 2024. On December 29, 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released their Interim Final Rule (IFR) outlining program requirements and processes. Check out FRAC’s new resource for an in-depth summary of the IFR. 

States can now apply to participate in the Medicaid Direct Certification Demonstration Project and bring the same benefits of direct certification to children, families, and schools through Medicaid. The deadline for state RFP applications is January 15, 2024. Learn more in FRAC’s new fact sheet. 

The Summer EBT Program would reduce summer hunger in your state or territory. Learn more about the benefits of Summer EBT to your state or territory in our new Summer EBT State Fact Sheets. 

By providing benefits to purchase food, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is vital to supporting the nutrition, health, and well-being of people experiencing homelessness. New temporary SNAP time limit exemptions went into effect September 1 — including for people experiencing homelessness — pursuant to the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act. Ensuring that the time limit exemptions for the newly exempt people experiencing homelessness are implemented effectively is an important strategy to improve their access to SNAP. Learn more in this new fact sheet from FRAC, the National Alliance to End Homelessness, and Opportunity Starts at Home. 

By providing benefits to purchase food, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is vital to supporting the nutrition, health, and well-being of young adults who are exiting foster care. Even so, too many of these eligible young adults miss out on SNAP. On September 1, new temporary SNAP time limit exemptions went into effect including for young adults, 18 to 24 years of age, who have left foster care, pursuant to the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA).1 Ensuring that the new time limit exemption for young people with experience in foster care is implemented effectively is an important strategy to improve their access to SNAP. Learn more in FRAC’s new fact sheet.

By providing benefits to purchase food, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is vital to supporting the nutrition, health, and well-being of military veterans. New temporary SNAP time limit exemptions went into effect September 1, including for veterans (e.g., people with military experience regardless of the conditions of their discharge or release) pursuant to the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act. Ensuring that the time limit exemptions for the newly exempt are implemented effectively is an important strategy to improve veterans’ access to SNAP.

This brief examines recent standards-setting initiatives within the healthcare sector regarding screening for food insecurity and other health-related social needs. It offers recommendations for anti-hunger advocates to leverage screening efforts to improve the nutrition, health, and well-being of people struggling to put food on the table.

There are two pathways for children to be deemed eligible to receive benefits through the Summer EBT Program, which is set to begin in summer 2024. The first is through automatic issuance, and the second is via a Summer EBT application. This resource outlines these pathways as well as frequently asked questions.