This blogpost summarizes a podcast, “Child Support – A Tool to Enable Families and Their Children to be Food Secure,” which included interviews with the National Child Support Enforcement Association, the Food Research & Action Center, and the Maine Department of Human Services. It highlights the positive impact of child support programs under the Office of Child Support Enforcement, and notes the ways that SNAP offers short- and long-term benefits for infant and child health and well-being. The blogpost also links to the full podcast.

This webinar discusses new federal investments in kinship navigator programs, grandfamilies housing, and relevant child welfare programs that can help grandfamilies. It highlights how funds can be utilized to assist families in critical areas during the pandemic, such as housing, lawyer fees, transportation, technology, food, and emergency support for older youth aging out of foster care.

The economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic include loss of employment and income, higher food prices, and other barriers to food access. This has resulted in a rise in the dollar amount of benefits issued by U.S. Department of Agriculture food assistance programs. This U.S. Department of Agriculture report examines the growth in food assistance benefits redeemed during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores changes in monthly SNAP and P-EBT redemptions through September 2020. The report also compares the usage of these benefits to recent years and redemption locations, including super stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, and online sites.

The 20th Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS) was held virtually on October 13–15 and October 19–22, 2020. The conference sessions were organized in six thematic tracks: TANF Programs, Policies, and Populations; Employment and Mobility in the Labor Market; Youth Well-Being and the Transition to Adulthood; Strengthening Families, Fatherhood, Marriages, and Relationships; Evaluating Social Programs, Building Evidence, and Using Data; and Approaches to Alleviate Poverty and Expand Opportunity. A complete set of videos covering plenary and breakout sessions and a career panel is now available online.

This updated interactive mapping tool highlights aspects of communities associated with safe children and strong families. The research-based framework, composed of select community indicators, is offered to communities nationwide. The tool maps community indicators at geographic levels defined by the user, from the state level to neighborhoods. Most indicators are from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The tool was informed by significant evidence of the community factors correlated with child maltreatment and a healthy community framework developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Factors include child and family wellbeing, economics, education, and housing. The tool includes new indicators, such as COVID-19 data and resource accessibility, and breaks down many of the data indicators by race and ethnicity. Training videos on how to use the tool are available.

This brief summarizes potential federal funding sources and programs that can be used to address barriers facing young parents and families, such as unemployment, disruption to education, financial instability, and lack of child care access, parenting experience, or family supports. Programs listed include, but are not limited to, TANF, SNAP, SSBG, Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program, Child Care Development Block Grant, WIOA, and the Family First Prevention Services Act Prevention Funds.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report, a summary of the Job Search Assistance (JSA) Strategies Evaluation, compares the effectiveness of different approaches for finding and keeping jobs among individuals applying for or receiving assistance under TANF. The report reviews findings from three sites: Genesee and Wayne Counties in Michigan; New York City; and Sacramento County, California. In each of these sites, TANF applicants or recipients were randomly assigned to one of two programs that provided employment-related services. The study measured outcome differences (in public benefit receipt, employment, and earnings) between people assigned to each of the two programs in each site. The report’s findings address three key questions regarding the frequency, mode, and content of the employment-related services for the TANF recipients in the two programs; the two programs’ impacts on employment and earnings; and the effects on receipt of TANF and SNAP due to participation in the two programs.

This interactive mapping tool reflects the community factors associated with safe children and strong families. These factors include child and family well-being (children living in poverty and children without health insurance), educational attainment, economic status (unemployment rate, poverty rate, and median household income), housing factors (average number of hours working at minimum wage needed to afford housing, and percentage of unoccupied housing units), accessibility (access to healthy food, number of SNAP benefit recipients, computer access, and reduced/free lunch eligibility), and COVID-19 metrics (through November 2, but continuously updated). Data and indicators can be mapped at geographic levels defined by the user from the state level to the neighborhood level (by census tract).

This Urban Institute brief highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted food insecurity, access to school meals, and charitable food distribution for adults and their families in the U.S. Based on data pulled from the first wave of the Urban Institute’s Coronavirus Tracking Survey, more than one in six adults ages 18 to 64 (17.7 percent) and more than one in five parents living with children (21.8 percent) reported in May 2020 that their households experienced food insecurity during the previous 30 days. The brief notes that this represents a moderate 3.2 percent drop from 20.9 percent in March/April 2020. While the increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits alleviated strain on food budgets for many, the brief concludes that despite the moderation in reported food insecurity over time, SNAP will continue to be a crucial key in alleviating food insecurity.

The Office of Family Assistance hosted a free PeerTA webinar on TANF and Food Insecurity on December 1, 2020. A study by the Urban Institute found that as of May 2020, two months into the COVID-19 pandemic, more than one in six adults (17.7%) and more than one in five parents living with children (21.8%) experienced food insecurity during the prior 30 days. Further, adults and families of color experienced food insecurity at higher rates than their peers. Public benefits programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs are critical resources for TANF families mitigating food insecurity during this time. Since most TANF families (84.3%) also receive SNAP benefits and other support, coordination between programs can reduce administrative burdens for participants, increasing the likelihood that participants will be able to access and receive the full suite of supportive services. Additionally, TANF partnerships with charitable organizations and food banks can help to reduce food insecurity and fill critical gaps for TANF families.

This webinar explored strategies for supporting vulnerable families, particularly as it relates to food insecurity, and the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on service delivery. A researcher panel discussed how TANF programs have addressed food insecurity with their participants through strengthened coordination with SNAP and other public programs. In addition, several State and Tribal programs discussed innovative partnerships between TANF agencies and charitable efforts to reduce food insecurity in local communities.

Speakers included: • Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, Northwestern University/Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) • Maria Boyle and Jillian Ouellette, Abt Associates • Julie Garreau, Cheyenne River Youth Project (CRYP) (unable to attend, but her PowerPoint was presented) • Alexis Fernandez, California Department of Social Services • Tikki Brown, Minnesota Family Investment Program