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Tell the U.S. Senate: “Take immediate action to ensure struggling families, and vulnerable people have enough food to eat during the pandemic. Not only will increasing SNAP and child nutrition assistance benefits help address food insecurity, but increasing funds to these programs will give the economy a much-needed boost.” |
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a daunting series of challenges for our country: not only are people facing a national public health emergency, but they are struggling to feed their families, as the economy hemorrhages millions of jobs.
Because of the pandemic, we are seeing an unprecedented surge in Americans going without enough food. The lack of food and the struggle to eat a healthy meal is placing the hardest burdens on racial minorities and frontline workers, whose jobs tend to be low-paying. In the early weeks of the pandemic, one in five adults in the U.S. didn’t have enough food to eat, according to the Urban Institute.
Essential workers are almost twice as likely as non-essential workers to use SNAP benefits because health, agriculture, food, and transportation workers earn disproportionately low wages. And Black and brown communities throughout the United States are several times as likely to face an even greater need.
The Human Needs Report is CHN’s newsletter on national policy issues affecting low-income and other vulnerable populations.
