Resource Library

Healthy School Meals for All means offering a free breakfast and lunch to all students at school, regardless of their household income, so they can learn and thrive. Learn more in FRAC’s new fact sheet.

WIC is an important resource for families with young children during the COVID-19 pandemic. WIC waivers and enhancements during the pandemic have simultaneously removed access barriers and increased the value of participating in WIC, resulting in overall increases in program participation. In February 2022, WIC reached 6.2 million participants, a 1.2 percent increase from February 2020. Learn more in FRAC’s latest report, WIC During COVID-19: Participation and Benefit Redemption Since the Onset of the Pandemic. 

This chart provides a look at the range of federal nutrition programs available to grandfamilies and kinship families with low incomes. Most of these programs are available to anyone who is eligible without waitlists or participation caps, and the programs are especially important resources for grandfamilies and kinship families, since a caregiver does not need to have legal custody or guardianship, or be related to the child living with them to receive help.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service issued Streamlining Program Requirements and Improving Integrity in the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) on September 19, 2022, a final rule that simplifies and clarifies SFSP program requirements while also removing administrative barriers. Several of the final changes formally codify many of the rescinded policies that were previously available through nationwide waivers, as well as several flexibilities that are currently available through policy guidance. Learn more in FRAC’s summary.

The SNAP Excess Shelter Deduction allows households applying for SNAP to claim a variety of shelter costs related to housing (such as rent, property taxes, repair costs) and utilities when determining net income. Current federal law, however, places a limit on the amount of excess shelter costs that households can claim unless one of their members is 60 or older or has a disability.

Learn how the Shelter Cap exacerbates the squeeze many families already experience between food and shelter expenses in this national fact sheet.

This interactive map provides household food insecurity rates, by state, on average over 2019-2021.

Many schools have found it more difficult to collect school meals applications during COVID-19, and this may be exacerbated as schools return to pre-pandemic operations. This toolkit shares outreach strategies and communication resources to help school districts and community partners ensure families return school meals applications.

In spring 2020, millions of students were either out of school or learning remotely. Pandemic EBT helped to fill the nutritional gap left by lack of access to school meals and had a large impact on addressing food insecurity.

FRAC’s latest Pandemic EBT report draws on a survey sent to all state Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program directors to highlight the critical importance of this program for children, families, and school nutrition programs. It then takes lessons learned reported by states to make policy recommendations for a permanent nationwide Summer EBT Program and identifies best practices to support the implementation.

Accompanying FRAC’s report, Pandemic EBT: Recommendations for a Permanent Nationwide Summer EBT Program, these state fact sheets provide a detailed picture of approved state P-EBT plans, including statistics on number of children served, communications and outreach strategies, and estimates of total benefit issuance. 

The reauthorization of the federal Child Nutrition Programs presents a unique opportunity to correct federal policy that has exacerbated food insecurity in Indian Country. In this policy brief, FRAC and the Intertribal Agriculture Council explore the ways Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) can ensure the Child Nutrition Programs reach and serve Tribal constituents in a more efficient and effective manner. 

Produced in partnership with the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), this resource provides organizations working with LGBTQ individuals and families information on programs that can help LGBTQ people with low incomes access meals, food, and resources to buy food. 

Produced in partnership with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, FRAC’s Federal Nutrition Programs and Emergency Food Referral Chart is an interactive tool that helps connect LGBTQ individuals and families with low incomes to meals, food, and resources to buy food.

FRAC’s Community Eligibility: The Key to Hunger-Free Schools, School Year 2021–2022 report analyzes community eligibility adoption–nationally and for each state and the District of Columbia–in the 2021–2022 school year.

The infant formula shortage has magnified racial and economic disparities. Learn how advocates can play a role in connecting parents to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and other resources during this difficult time.

This report highlights the role that school nutrition waivers have played in supporting school nutrition operations and access to school meals, the importance of extending the waivers through the 2022–2023 school year, and the path forward to ensure all children have access to the nutritious school meals they need to learn and thrive.