Food Assistance | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Food Assistance

Report

States Have an Important Opportunity to Address Childhood Hunger This Summer

May 24, 2022 | Katie Bergh

Summer P-EBT is a highly effective strategy to reduce food hardship among families with children. If all states participate, the program could provide over $13 billion in fully federally funded benefits to more than 36 million children nationwide.

Food Assistance in American Rescue Plan Act Will Reduce Hardship, Provide Economic Stimulus

May 7, 2021

Report

American Families Plan Could Substantially Reduce Children’s Food Hardship

May 21, 2021

Report

Food Assistance in President Biden’s COVID Relief Plan Would Reduce Hardship, Provide Economic Stimulus

January 28, 2021

Report

Changes in SNAP Benefit Levels and Food Spending and Diet Quality: Simulations from the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey

May 12, 2022 | Michele Ver Ploeg and Chen Zhen

Blog

Modernizing SNAP Benefits Will Help Millions of Families Afford Healthy, Nutritious Diet

August 16, 2021 | Joseph Llobrera

Report

Permanently End the SNAP Cut-Off to Support a More Equitable Recovery

May 4, 2021 | Ed Bolen, Joseph Llobrera and Brynne Keith-Jennings

Statement

Rosenbaum: Executive Action on Food Assistance Strengthens Federal Response to Hunger

January 22, 2021 | Dottie Rosenbaum

Resource List

Puerto Rico's Nutrition Assistance Program

Puerto Rico’s household food assistance program, the Nutrition Assistance Program, is one of the most important programs helping people meet basic needs in Puerto Rico.

Resource List

El Programa de Asistencia Nutricional (PAN)

El Programa de Asistencia Nutricional es uno de los programas de asistencia económica más importantes en Puerto Rico.

Resource List

SNAP: State by State Data, Fact Sheets, and Resources

April 25, 2022

This page contains links to resources and fact sheets organized by state.

Resource List

Resources on SNAP and Work

SNAP is an important support for low-income workers. Millions of Americans work in jobs with low wages, unpredictable schedules, and no benefits such as paid sick leave — all of which contribute to...

New on this Topic

Policy Brief

Boosting SNAP Benefits Would Increase Spending on Groceries and Improve the Nutritional Quality of Food Purchases

May 12, 2022

Report

A Closer Look at Who Benefits from SNAP: State-by-State Fact Sheets

April 25, 2022

Report

State WIC Agencies Use Federal Flexibility to Streamline Enrollment

April 1, 2022

Policy Brief

Targeted Text Message Outreach Can Increase WIC Enrollment

March 31, 2022

Policy Brief

Matching Data Across Benefit Programs Can Increase WIC Enrollment

March 31, 2022

Policy Brief

Using Data Matching and Targeted Outreach to Boost WIC Enrollment: Lessons Learned from State Pilots

March 31, 2022

Policy Basics

SNAP helps over 40 million low-income people afford a nutritionally adequate diet; WIC provides nutritious food for about 7 million low-income women, infants, and children; and school breakfast and lunch programs provide free and reduced-price meals to over 20 million low-income children.

We design and promote policies to make SNAP stronger, more accessible, and easier to administer; help states design their SNAP programs; help ensure that WIC has the funds to serve all eligible applicants; and design and promote policies that increase school meal participation by low-income children.

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

Experts

Robust COVID Relief Achieved Historic Gains Against Poverty and Hardship, Bolstered Economy

The robust policy response helped make the COVID-19 recession the shortest on record and helped fuel an economic recovery that has brought the unemployment rate, which peaked at 14.8 percent in April...

Policymakers Should Craft Compromise Build Back Better Package

As policymakers pursue compromise on a Build Back Better bill, they should craft legislation that, even if smaller, still makes significant progress toward more broadly shared prosperity in which...

5 Reasons Why Congress Should Quickly Pass Build Back Better

The package — which is fiscally sustainable, based on solid research, and builds on successful existing federal and state efforts — would make us a fairer, more equitable...

Parrott: House Takes Historic Step; Senate Should Get Build Back Better Across Finish Line Without Delay

The House vote brings us a critical step closer to delivering policy advances that help families meet everyday challenges such as paying rent and putting food on the table, affording child care and...

Build Back Better Legislation Would Cut Poverty, Boost Opportunity

The Build Back Better legislation would take major steps to reduce the number of people living in poverty, improve the quality of life for low- and moderate-income people, and create opportunity so...

Northern Mariana Islands to Receive Substantial Additional Food Assistance in a Move Toward Parity With Rest of U.S.

Under a new memorandum of understanding (MOU), food assistance available to the U.S. territory of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) will grow much closer to parity with the rest...

Nutrition Provisions in New House Build Back Better Legislation Could Substantially Reduce Children’s Food Hardship

The Build Back Better legislation being considered by the House includes historic investments in proven child nutrition programs that would transform nutrition assistance for our nation’s...

Parrott: New Build Back Better Framework a Historic Step Forward

The framework would represent one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in a...

Characteristics of Participants in Puerto Rico’s Nutritional Assistance Program (PAN/NAP) and Their Connections to the Labor Market

Leer en español Debates in Puerto Rico about the impact of economic security programs — particularly the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP, or PAN for Programa de Asistencia Nutricional)...

WIC Coordination With Medicaid and SNAP

Collaboration between the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Medicaid, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) is an...

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