The National Parents Union Issue Statement on New White House Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health

September 27, 2022—Boston, MA— Today the Biden-Harris Administration released a historic and comprehensive strategy for ensuring the wellness of children and families across the country. The strategy includes supporting efforts to expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC), which, since implementation, has cut child poverty in half and reduced the number of children who are food insecure in our country to historic low levels.

Reinstating the Child Tax Credit is one of the surest ways to ensure that no child or family in our country goes hungry, and we are excited to see the Biden Harris Administration cite it as a key recommendation in their plan to end hunger in the United States by 2030. According to the National Parents Union’s national parent poll conducted in August 2022, 86% of parents surveyed who had been receiving the monthly payments indicated that the Child Tax Credit had had an impact on the family’s financial situation. Moreover, the reinstatement of the CTC could not come at a better time, when our polling makes clear that 56% of parents said the economic conditions in the United States are getting worse and more than 90% of parents making less than $50,000 are struggling to make ends meet or living paycheck to paycheck.

Additionally, the strategy commits to:

• Continue a SNAP benefit increase that was originally part of the American Rescue Plan in reaction to the critical food insecurity brought on by the instability of the pandemic. This program lifted 2.3 million people out of poverty–one million of those were children.
• Expand the Free and Reduced Lunch program to 9 million more kids by 2032.
• Expand the Summer EBT program, which serves 32 million children meals over the summer.

NPU commends the Biden Harris Administration’s vision and we expect Congress to take swift and bold action in enacting the recommendations to demonstrate to working class Americans across the country that their economic pain is in fact seen and heard by their leaders in DC. We believe that children in the United States should have the resources they need to have the best childhoods possible and that begins by ensuring that they are not hungry and living healthy, abundant lives.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARENTS UNION

The National Parents Union is a network of highly effective parent organizations and grassroots activists across the country that is united behind a set of common goals and principles to channel the power of parents. Our family advocates improve the quality of life for children across the United States and define the education conversation. https://nationalparentsunion.org/