FRAC Chat

FRAC’s Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation: Summer Nutrition Status Report released this week finds that 2.8 million children received a lunch through the Summer Nutrition Programs in July 2019, a decrease of 77,000 children from July 2018. The Summer Nutrition Programs provided lunch to only one child for every seven children who participated in free and reduced-price school lunch during the 2018–2019 regular school year.

A new analysis from Diane Schanzenbach and Northwestern University shows that 13.5 percent of older adults (60+) face food insecurity, a dramatic increase of nearly 60 percent from pre-COVID-19 levels. Food insecurity rates are especially high among Black and Hispanic older adults.

Although most schools have been shuttered since mid-March, the official end of the school year is here for many states, which means that school districts and sponsors across the country are launching or fine-tuning their summer nutrition programs. These programs are designed to replace school breakfast and lunch, filling a nutrition gap that exists for thousands of low-income children during the summer months.

Hunger and food insecurity is no stranger for Native Americans, who collectively make up self-governing communities throughout the United States known as Indian Country. Community food deficits are a pervasive fact of life, persisting for centuries for American’s first citizens. Traumatic events like pandemics amplify these circumstances. As COVID-19 numbers rise, so do the challenges and impacts on Native peoples’ health and access to food. In order to address the escalating health crisis caused by COVID-19, Tribal governments are justifiably closing their borders and businesses. Suppressing exposure to the pandemic is a solid, rational and critical step that Tribal governments must take to protect their citizens.

Struggling with food insecurity and the associated health risks well before the COVID-19 public health crisis began, older adults have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, especially those who are 65 and older, older adults of color, and older adults with underlying medical conditions. Many are at disproportionate risk of contracting COVID-19, and struggle to put food on the table, let alone stockpile enough for sheltering in place.