NBC says the Biden administration will announce the launch of a summer food program to feed more than 30 million low-income children.
It is the latest push by the White House to address widespread hunger and food insecurity in the U.S., one the agency said it believes is the largest summer food program in the country’s history.
“Congress, through the American Rescue Plan, expanded this program to operate during the summer, which I think was just highly responsive to what we need right now,” said Stacy Dean, the deputy under secretary of agriculture for food, nutrition and consumer services.
“We know that summer hunger is a problem in normal years, but obviously this year, with heightened food hardship as a result of the pandemic, we’re happy to deploy the program this summer.”
Sizi Goyah, a math teacher at Brooklyn Center High School in Minnesota, said he and his colleagues often talk about how their students take a few steps back academically over the summer. But he said he has also noticed that some of them return to their desks after those months appearing as though they have lost weight and are hungry.
Further reading:
- $10 billion food system commitment from Biden
- Hungry Child in America is increased
- Michelle Obama’s school nutrition rolled back
