Community eligibility, a provision of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, will allow more than 25,000 schools in high-poverty neighborhoods to offer nutritious meals to all students at no charge next year, as we explain in a new paper.
School districts can offer community eligibility district-wide...
off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
Community Eligibility: A Path to Eliminating Hunger in Over 25,000 Schools
May 14, 2014
Voices Mount to Let Science Decide the WIC Potato Issue
May 13, 2014
We’ve explained why nutrition scientists, not lobbyists, should decide whether WIC should add white potatoes to the limited list of foods that it provides — and numerous editorial boards and columnists agree. Here are a few examples, the first two from major potato-growing states,...
Nutrition Experts, Not Lobbyists, Should Decide WIC Potato Issue
May 13, 2014
Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Mark Udall (D-CO) essentially argued in yesterday’s USA Today that Congress should, for the first time, override the science-based process for deciding which foods the WIC program provides by requiring WIC to add white potatoes. That...
Rampell’s Right: “You Say Potato, I Say Precedent”
May 9, 2014
The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell rightly decries the industry lobbying campaign to add white potatoes to the limited list of foods that the WIC program provides.
As we’ve...
Politics Wins a Round, but the WIC Potato Fight Isn’t Over
February 10, 2014
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack should reject Congress’s recent call to add white potatoes to the limited list of foods that the WIC program provides. The report accompanying the omnibus spending bill that Congress approved last month instructs the Agriculture Department (USDA) to include all kinds...
Making High-Poverty Schools Hunger-Free
October 1, 2013
With nearly 16 million children in households that have trouble affording enough nutritious food at some point during the year, several states are taking advantage of a new federal option to reduce hunger and streamline their school meal programs, as a major new report from CBPP and the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)...
If Lunch Isn’t Free, How Much Should It Cost?
June 26, 2013
Many school districts 
don’t charge nearly enough
to cover the cost of “paid lunches” for students whose family incomes are too high to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. As a result, some school districts divert part of the federal subsidies that are supposed to help pay for meals for low-income children to subsidize meals for better-off children, leaving less money to...
House Bill Underfunds WIC and Would Cut Breastfeeding Counseling
June 12, 2013
As we’ve noted previously, the 2014 agriculture appropriations bill moving through the House underfunds WIC, the highly regarded nutrition program for low-income pregnant women, infants, and young children, and as a result could deny WIC benefits and services to eligible women...
House Bill Would Underfund WIC Nutrition Program
June 5, 2013
The 2014 agriculture appropriations bill that a House subcommittee will consider today would underfund WIC, the highly regarded nutrition program for low-income pregnant women, infants, and young children. The bill could result in the denial of WIC benefits and services to...
Science — Not Politics — Should Shape the WIC Food Package
June 4, 2013
With the farm bill and appropriations bills moving through Congress, the potato industry is pushing again to require the WIC program to add white potatoes to the limited list of foods it provides, contrary to what the nation’s leading nutrition experts recommend. Despite such lobbying campaigns in the past, Congress has never dictated the specific foods that WIC should provide — and...