The share of low-income US families who sometimes or often didn’t have enough food to eat fell from 24.5% to 22.5% between late April and late July of 2020, a research team found.
This safety net program helps infants, toddlers and their moms eat right.
Camille Tokerud/Stone via Getty Images
Katherine Engel, American University School of Public Affairs and Taryn Morrissey, American University School of Public Affairs
Republicans are pressing for policy changes based on a misconception that hardly anyone who gets help buying groceries with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits is employed.
Small-scale farmers, organic producers and local markets receive a tiny fraction of farm bill funding.
Edwin Remsberg/VWPics/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Adults insured by Medicaid who are 19 to 55 years old and don’t have children or other dependents would need to spend 80 hours a month doing paid work, job training or community service.
These benefits make it easier for millions of Americans to buy groceries.
SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images
More than 41 million people rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to buy their groceries. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the program ramped up.
Volunteers pitch in at the Second Harvest Food Bank in Irvine, Calif. in December 2022.
Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
A little more than 1 in 10 Americans can’t get enough to eat – around the same share of the country that was experiencing food insecurity before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The official child poverty rate is about the same today as in 1967.
More Than Words Photography by Alisa Brouwer/Moment Open via Getty Images
Should the U.S. help low-income households afford water service, as it does with heating and groceries? Chile does. An economist explains how it works there and how it could work here.
Free bagged lunches are ready for distribution at a public school in Fayette, Miss., on March 3, 2021.
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
A recent survey finds that the pandemic made it harder for many US households to put food on the table. It also changed the ways in which people buy and store food.
Buying enough groceries with government benefits is getting easier.
Katrina Wittkamp/DigitalVision via Getty Images
Long-term increases like this are unusual. So is the fact that this increased governmental generosity began with a measure approved by Congress when Republicans held majorities in both chambers.
Many Americans who lost their jobs when the coronavirus pandemic began sought donated food.
Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Early estimates US poverty rate estimates indicate that policies intended to soften the blow of economic upheaval made a big difference.
Starting in October 2021, SNAP benefits will be 25% higher than before the pandemic due to a lasting policy change.
Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
An economist explains what it would cost to give SNAP benefits to all Americans in households earning up to about $100,000 per year – and why it would be worth it.
Eating right can be an emotional issue, as well as a question of economics.
Dejan/Getty Images
Detecting food insecurity requires more than assessing what’s in your refrigerator or measuring the distance between your home and the closest supermarket.
Stripped of benefits, some former prisoners are forced to rely on charity.
Chandan KhannaA/AFP via Getty Images)
Formerly incarcerated Americans face food insecurity rates double that of the general population. A 1996 law that prohibits drug felons from getting crucial benefits may be partially to blame.