Resource Library

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. 

Since the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the Colorado and Vermont
Pandemic EBT (P-EBT) child care plans for school year 2021–2022 in April, a growing number
of states have been approved. So far, all of the approved plans have used the simple approach to
calculate the percentage decrease in lunch participation in the Child and Adult Care Food
Program compared to pre-pandemic levels to set a monthly benefit amount for children younger
than 6 participating in SNAP.

New Jersey has a strong existing network of anti-hunger programs and coalitions, each with their own experts, best practices, and lessons learned. A primary goal of a statewide effort to end hunger is to leverage the skills and expertise of the individuals involved in these initiatives and increase coordination among programs. This assets-based approach aims to validate past and
ongoing work and create a broad base of community and institutional involvement. This publicly accessible catalog will allow communities and institutions to make connections across topic area and place.

Leveraging the federal nutrition programs is a key strategy to help reduce and prevent food insecurity effectively and equitably. In this brief, a supplement to Hunger and Its Solutions in New Jersey: Landscape Analysis of Current Initiatives, Recommended Action, and Emerging Opportunities for Further Investment, FRAC provides further information on the landscape of the federal nutrition programs in New Jersey. 

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act
authorizes all of the federal child nutrition programs.
The child nutrition programs reach millions of
children each day and improve educational achievement,
economic security, nutrition, and health. Although most of
the programs are permanently authorized, about every
five years, Congress reviews the laws governing these
programs through the reauthorization process.