Under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) had the authority to grant certain programmatic waivers to state agencies that administer the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). FNS issued waivers to provide flexibilities to requirements that could not be met as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and support continued access to WIC services. When this waiver authority ended on September 30, 2021, FNS had approved 16 types of WIC waivers and 831 individual waiver requests across the 89 WIC state agencies. This report summarizes details on the use and impact of these waivers.

The federal government currently has five primary programs designed to feed school-age children: the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the School Breakfast Program (SBP), the Child and Adult Care Food Program, the Seamless Summer Option, and the Summer Food Service Program. Each program has distinct meal costs, eligibility requirements, and reimbursement processes for the meals served. While all public schools have the option to participate in each of these federal meal programs, they may choose to opt out of any of them. Recognizing the multitude of benefits for students, families, and schools, this report illustrates how five states—California, Maine, Colorado, Minnesota, and New Mexico—have acted to independently serve free school meals for all students. In the absence of continued federal investment, this strategy is essential for ensuring that students are well fed and ready to learn during the school day.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, reaching 38 million people nationwide in 2019 alone. These fact sheets provide state-by-state data on who participates in the SNAP program, the benefits they receive, and SNAP’s role in strengthening the economy.

These factsheets provide information on federal child nutrition programs at national and state levels. Datasets include national level data from FY1969-2022 which cover participation and meals served under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP); outlets and milk served under the Special Milk Program (SMP); program costs for NSLP, SBP, and SMP; participation, meals, and costs for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP); and participation, meals, and costs for the Summer Food Service Program. Datasets also include National Level Monthly Data for NSLP, SBP, and CACFP during FY2020-FY2023; historical State Level Tables for these programs during FY2018-2022; and State Level Tables with current year data. Data is available in .pdf and .xlsx formats.

Since 2011, Feeding America has conducted an annual Map the Meal Gap study to improve understanding of food insecurity and food costs at the local level. This study provides data with a focus on the extent and variation in local food insecurity levels in 2021. A strong public and private response to the COVID-19 crisis helped mitigate national food insecurity from rising significantly in 2020, and many of the response efforts continued at heightened levels into 2021. The result at the national level was a decline in food insecurity in 2021 for both the overall population and for children, with rates reaching the lowest levels on record. But the study also shows that food insecurity did not improve everywhere, and significant disparities continue to exist both within and across geographies.

The U.S. labor force participation rate has been trending downwards since the beginning of the 21st century. This paper notes that labor force participation (the percentage of people working or looking for work) plummeted during the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic, representing a decline of more than 8.2 million people. About half of the drop was quickly regained, and participation recovered further in the second half of 2021. About 40% (nearly 1 million workers) of the persistent decline can be attributed to the continuation of pre-pandemic demographic trends. The authors discuss four possible explanations for the remaining 60% of the decline (about 1.4 million workers): cash payments to households in 2020 and 2021 that made it easier for some people to postpone looking for a new job; fear of catching COVID; long-COVID symptoms that make it difficult to work; and changing work-life balance preferences.

More than 2.5 million children currently are being raised by their grandparents and other relatives, both formally through the child welfare system and informally through private family arrangements. When these caregivers take on this responsibility, they often receive little to no financial support or advice regarding how to navigate the many systems that they might need to access to help them meet the needs of the children in their care. Kinship navigator programs help fill that gap by providing caregivers with information, education, and referrals to a wide range of services and supports. This brief provides information about the essential elements of kinship navigator programs, including examples in Richland County (Ohio), Florida, New York, and Georgia, along with evaluation outcomes of these programs.

This discussion guide aims to help those who have viewed the five-part video training series, “Engaging Kinship Caregivers: Managing Risk Factors in Kinship Care.” It is intended to help these viewers expand their learning through group exercises and discussion, and practice the strategies learned through the series. The guide is designed for use with small groups led by program directors, supervisors, and trainers. Individuals can also apply the questions and prompts, either on their own or with a colleague, to deepen their understanding of the concepts.

As the number of kinship caregivers increases for children in foster care and more child welfare jurisdictions adopt a “kin first” placement practice, the need to provide specialized support for relatives is becoming even more crucial. However, with the added complexity of child welfare system involvement, financials stress, and multigenerational loyalty binds, these families deserve assistance from professionals trained to meet their unique needs. The Annie E. Casey Foundation developed and sponsored this five-part set of training modules to strengthen the skills of child welfare professionals in supporting families to improve outcomes for children. The modules are led by Dr. Joseph Crumbley, an internationally renowned kinship trainer and consultant.

This fact sheet describes how grandfamilies and kinship families have unique strengths and face unique challenges. It addresses key questions regarding these types of families, including how many children live in them; what available data show about them; what research shows about their strengths; and what challenges these families face, such as legal, financial (with a table of national averages comparing financial supports for one child, two children, and three children); physical and mental health; housing; and education issues.