Food Insecurity in the U.S. and Here at Home in Missouri More than 34 million people experience food insecurity in the United States. That includes 9 million children and more than 5 million adults aged 60 and older.   That is 10.2% of Americans in total.  Imagine a room of people randomly selected from any...Read More

The pandemic and its impact on our economy hit all of us hard, and illuminated the struggles low-wage workers face in ways that we had not seen for a long time. Workers with low incomes were less able to stay home, less likely to have sick leave to care for themselves and their families, and...Read More

As we wrap up the year, we’re already deep into planning for the next legislative session that starts in January. Our December Friday Forum covered the highlights of what we’re expecting and prioritizing this coming year, but today, we want to give you a deeper dive into some topics that we expect will come up...Read More

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the nation’s largest anti-hunger program and helps millions of people who are at risk for food insecurity every month. Specifically, SNAP is vitally important to low income seniors across our nation.  In 2020, more than 5 million adults ages 60 and older were food-insecure, meaning they had limited...Read More

Just a few weeks into the new school year, many families are learning that after two years of all Missouri public school children receiving free school lunches, the School Lunch Program has returned to pre-pandemic form. Back in March of 2020, many Federal child nutrition waivers were offered as a form of COVID-19 relief. These...Read More

This past spring, as the school year was winding down, nonprofits across the country began working on plans to implement their summer feeding programs for kids. Planning was harder than usual though, as nonprofits were unsure what this summer would look like. The waivers that were put into place in March 2020 in light of...Read More

Earlier this month, the Food Assistance and Hunger in the Heartland Report was released. This is a first of its kind-a comprehensive research study about nutrition access and hunger commissioned by a Missouri based entity! Feeding Missouri, the association of the six Missouri based Feeding America Food Banks, commissioned this statewide research project from the MU...Read More

This past week Empower Missouri held its Annual Week of Action. In addition to 3 virtual days, this year we were able to be back in the Capitol for the first time in over 2 years! It was so good to be back.  On each of our virtual days attendees were able to learn about...Read More

As Joseph Llobera from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities stated in his report Child Support Cooperation Requirements in SNAP Are Unproven, Costly, and Put Families at Risk, “both the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) and the Child Support program improve the health and well-being of millions of low-income children every...Read More

Earlier this week, the Missouri Senate Economic Development Committee heard Senate Bill 790 which would provide state tax credits to grocery stores that open in food deserts across our state. According to USDA, a food desert is a low-income tract where a substantial number or substantial share of residents does not have easy access to...Read More