By Ana O’Quin
March 11, 2020 marks the date that the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus, specifically COVID-19, a worldwide pandemic. Since that day, almost every individual and sector of society both in the U.S. and abroad has been significantly impacted by the virus and its aftershocks. This pandemic has halted our daily lives in unprecedented ways: uniquely threatening the well-being of our entire society, while disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable.
As humans, one of our primary needs is food. Yet millions of Americans do not have consistent and reliable access to basic nutrition. COVID-19 has only increased this need. The virus and subsequent intentional slowdown of the U.S. economy have left millions, including parents, unemployed. Unemployment, business closures, and barriers to accessing food have increased the number of families facing food insecurity. Food pantries and food banks report unprecedented need.
One particularly vulnerable population prone to experiencing food insecurity is children and teens. Working and low-income families have been disproportionately impacted by the economic crisis, and their children are tangibly affected. Many families rely on schools to ensure their children have access to healthy food throughout the day. As the pandemic has necessitated school closures across the country, many children and teens have experienced food insecurity.
Even before COVID-19, child and teen food insecurity was referred to by experts as a “hidden epidemic”. Food insecurity is defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as “the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.” Although intricately related to hunger, the two are distinct.
Last year, 21.8 million children in the U.S. relied on free and reduced lunch at school. However, COVID-19-related school closures caused this number to rise to 55.1 million. According to a recent report from The Hamilton Project, overall food insecurity rates during the COVID-19 crisis have doubled, and food insecurity in households with children under 18 has increased by 130 percent since 2018.
Food Insecurity and the Social Safety Net During COVID-19
The pandemic showcases the importance of food security programs, specifically the National School Breakfast and Lunch Program for students, as an essential part of the fabric of our social safety net. As the crisis continues, and as we begin to understand the scope of economic devastation that will outlast the pandemic itself, we should affirm the important role of nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and school food programs, as well as advocate for increased collaboration among government and civil society in our communities. The new “normal” that we hope for should be one that strengthens the social safety net, protects the most vulnerable of our society, and addresses inequalities in our nation.
The social safety net, which includes both government programs and civil society institutions like secular and faith-based nonprofits, provides basic support to Americans during times of need. While perhaps not as obvious, schools act as a critical component of this safety net. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the second largest food and nutrition assistance program behind SNAP. On a typical day, the NSLP provides low-cost or free lunches to 29.7 million children at a cost of $13.8 billion dollars annually. The School Breakfast Program (SBP) feeds almost 14.96 million students daily, and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) extends these meals during summer months when children are often at a greater risk to food insecurity.
Students from public, private, or charter schools are eligible for the programs, and eligibility mainly relies on household income level. School lunches are free to children in households with incomes at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty line, and reduced priced meals are given to children living in households with income between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty line. Children are eligible for breakfast programs when living in households at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level, categorically through participation in SNAP or other federal programs, or if they have a status as a homeless, migrant, runaway, or foster child. Summer meals are served to children at eligible sites where at least half of children are living in households with an income at or below 185 percent at the poverty level.
What will the future of these programs be this the fall and beyond, when it’s still unclear what a return to school will look like for many students?
Children and teenagers face food insecurity for a multitude of reasons, as outlined in my 2019 Hatfield Prize Report titled “The Hidden Epidemic of Teen Food Insecurity”. Together, Dr. Stephanie Boddie, my advisor and a faculty member within the School of Social Work, Education, and Truett Seminary at Baylor University, and I utilized data from community leaders and a focus group of teens to explore responses to teen food insecurity at both local and federal levels. The reasons teens and children may face food insecurity, outlined in the report, are exacerbated by COVID-19 and school closures. The prevalence of the primary cause, inability to afford food, has increased as more than 36 million Americans filed for unemployment in the last two months alone. In April the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the greatest monthly increase in grocery prices in more than 50 years. Teens who may shoulder household responsibility are particularly threatened by these rising unemployment rates and may face additional pressure as shelter-in-place orders are enforced. Racial disparities within food insecurity rates are widened as the COVID-19 crisis disproportionately impacts people of color, specifically Black and Latinx residents, living in metropolitan centers.
Children and teens who face stigma around food distribution efforts as a barrier to food security will face similar issues as schools remain closed. Instead of relying on easily accessible school meals, they must rely on alternative food sources that are more difficult to access. Worrying about their peers’ perceptions of utilizing these resources could present a significant barrier to their motivation to access them, even if a greater number of their peers may also find themselves food insecure. The net effect of these aggravated concerns, as well as the sudden loss of two or more months of school breakfast and lunch meals, present a grave danger to the food security of children and young adults. The far-reaching effects of COVID-19 both showcase and worsen the reality of food insecurity in our nation.
What’s Required to Meet the Need?
Schools, in partnership with the federal government, have risen to the challenge of addressing food security for students. Food pick up programs, which many schools have facilitated, are necessary for families that rely on schools to help meet their children’s nutritional needs. Yet, as concerned parents have expressed, the requirement to be present in food-pickup efforts presents a greater threat to families of catching the virus. In-person requirements may also be impossible for parents or guardians who don’t have the option to leave work to pick up the meals. Families often find themselves forced to choose between receiving meals and exposing themselves to greater risk of the virus or limiting their food intake and going hungry. Food security goes hand-in-hand with not only the economic means to food but also having access and transportation to food sources. As school districts grapple with difficult decisions upon returning from school, it is imperative that food insecurity efforts are addressed for not only students formally eligible for meal programs, but also newly food-insecure students.
Other civil society institutions, including secular and faith-based nonprofits, businesses, and houses of worship, also have a role to play in addressing food insecurity during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Their efforts directly affect food-insecure youth as they support families grappling with tightening budgets and lack of access to nutritious food. For example, Emergency Meals-to-You, a partnership between the Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, U.S. Department of Agriculture, McLane Global, and PepsiCo, addresses the lack of access for families in rural communities. The program delivers five days-worth of shelf-stable nutritious foods that meet USDA’s summer food requirements and will prepare and deliver around a million meals a week to youth living in rural areas. Its collaboration between the federal government, the nonprofit sector, and businesses is an example of the types of collaborative efforts highlighted in the 2019 Hatfield Prize. World Central Kitchen’s #ChefsForAmerica initiative, which serves nearly 100,000 meals across the country by pulling together restaurants and tech companies to provide meals, and by supporting local hospital clinicians with hot meals daily, is another example of the important contributions of civil society.
“As we navigate the current crisis and begin to consider the features of the post-pandemic landscape, our society’s new normal should be one that is more equitable, compassionate, and just.”
Foundational to the social safety net and to fully addressing food insecurity in the U.S. is the federal government’s response. The Families First Coronavirus Response of 2020 has been applauded by hunger experts as an important first step in addressing food insecurity during the pandemic. The legislation, in addition to addressing unemployment and coronavirus testing, allowed states to increase allotments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to the maximum benefit size for two months. Thirty-one states have been approved for a third month, and six have been approved for a fourth. It also implements Pandemic EBT (P-EBT) in which states can provide meal replacements through SNAP to households with children who would normally receive free and reduced meals. P-EBT directly affects children who previously relied on meals at school who now rely on the food in their own homes. Thirty-four states have been approved for P-EBT waivers, and a policy brief recommended that states continue to work with USDA and education agencies to serve food-insecure children.
Despite these commendable steps to support food-insecure families, there is a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rule that could negatively impact families. The USDA released its final rule on February 1, 2019 to limit eligibility for SNAP by removing work requirement waivers for states based on certain economic conditions. The rule was set to go into effect on April 1, 2020, but a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction and stay on the rule on March 13, citing the impact the pandemic would have on food insecurity. On May 12 the USDA appealed the court order. Should the rule go into effect as finalized, 1.3 million individuals, by the Brookings Institute’s estimates, could face a time limit on SNAP eligibility, and USDA estimates show that nearly 700,000 people would have lost access to SNAP benefits. Although a subset of the population, abled-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWD) will be primarily affected by the rule, its significant changes pose a threat to the entire food security system. Non-custodial parents supporting children, teens aging into adulthood, and college students facing food insecurity would all be particularly vulnerable to the policy change. In a recent COVID-19 webinar with Bread for the World it was recommended that the current administration rescind the proposed rule indefinitely, not only during the pandemic, in light of economic distress and long-term recovery. Its implications present a serious threat to the food security of families, and the children they care for, both during and after the pandemic.
Additionally, the historic Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) failed to increase the maximum SNAP benefits, despite many advocates calling for such a policy response. The fourth round of emergency relief legislation is now working its way through Congress. The HEROES Act, recently passed in the House, would increase the maximum benefit by 15 percent.
COVID-19 continues to disrupt every sector of society and as its implications continue to be felt, we must ensure that the social safety net meets the needs of the food-insecure families and youth. This includes both emergency services to help them adjust to sudden unemployment and changing circumstances, as well as long-term efforts to ensure access to affordable, nutritious food in their communities. We can advocate for this new normal in three ways. First, we must recognize the key role that schools play in not only educating, but also in meeting the vital nutritional needs of children. Schools can partner with houses of worship and other civil society institutions to meet these needs. Partnerships like Pike Road Schools and local churches demonstrate how over 800 children can be feed during school closures. Next, collaboration within the social safety net can be utilized to overcome unique barriers to food security such as access and unemployment. Lastly, government has a responsibility to promote the flourishing of all of Americans through its policies and practices, which includes policies addressing food insecurity. People of faith can advocate for policies that strengthen the safety net, especially during COVID-19. As we navigate the current crisis and begin to consider the features of the post-pandemic landscape, our society’s new normal should be one that is more equitable, compassionate, and just.
Ana O’Quin is a MSW student at the University of Texas’s Steve Hicks School of Social Work, and graduate of Baylor University. She is a recipient of the 2019 Hatfield Prize in which she wrote about teen food insecurity, and hopes to engage in macro-level preventative social work in her future.
Dr. Stephanie Boddie served as an advisor and editor for this article. Dr. Boddie joined the Baylor University faculty in 2017 as an assistant professor of Church and Community Ministries with affiliations at the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, the George W. Truett Theological Seminary, and the School of Education. She is also a non-resident senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society and an alumni fellow at the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program. She is a faculty associate at Pitt-Assisted Communities and Schools at University of Pittsburgh and the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis as well, as a co-convener of the Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race.
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