Elaine Waxman

1 month ago | urban.org | Poonam Gupta |Elaine Waxman |Kassandra Martinchek |Aleszu Bajak

The Thrifty Food Plan, which is used to determine SNAP benefits, hadn’t been updated since 2006. In 2018, however, Congress approved a bipartisan provision to reevaluate the plan by 2022 and every five years thereafter. The resulting reevaluation, issued in 2021, ensured that SNAP benefit amounts reflected current dietary guidelines, costs of buying and preparing food, and household consumption patterns.

Oct 22, 2024 | aspenfood.org | Elaine Waxman

This November, Americans will vote for the next President, 33 Senate seats, and all 435 House seats. Globally, more voters than ever in history will head to the polls as at least 64 countries—representing a combined population of about 49% of the people in the world—will have held national elections by the end of 2024. And the results—particularly when it comes to food security—will prove consequential for years to come.

May 20, 2024 | urban.org | Elaine Waxman |Christina Baird |Rachel Marconi |Ben Chartoff

How do we estimate the SNAP benefit per meal? The maximum SNAP benefit is the same for all counties in the 48 contiguous states and Washington, DC, and is adjusted for Alaska and Hawaii. Because we are interested in how well the maximum benefit can help people afford the cost of a modestly priced meal in their communities, we take an average of the maximum benefit each household size can receive and adjust it for each household size’s share of SNAP enrollees in 2022.

Jan 25, 2024 | tahlequahdailypress.com | Poonam Gupta |Theresa Anderson |Elaine Waxman

For many children, especially those from families with low incomes, summer vacation comes with a catch—no guaranteed meals at school. Several options exist for children to access food when school is on break, all of which are geared toward reducing food insecurity. However, there is no single solution to summer child hunger, and too often, the debate about which options schools should provide doesn’t consider what options families prefer.

Oct 26, 2023 | boisestatepublicradio.org | Maria Godoy |Elaine Waxman

Just putting three meals a day on the table was a struggle for millions of people in the U.S. last year. That's the sobering conclusion of anew report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which found hunger in the U.S. rose sharply in 2022. The report found that 44.2 million people lived in households that had difficulty getting enough food to feed everyone in 2022, up from 33.8 million people the year prior.