Yesterday, House Democrats released the text of a new stimulus package: a blueprint for what could become the fourth major COVID-19 response bill passed by Congress. What did the bill get right, and when can we expect it to move? Read more >
Kids, Families, and Food Workers Need a “HEROES Act.” Will Congress Deliver?
Sarah Reinhardt, Food Systems & Health Analyst
May 13, 2020 2:27 PM EDT
Photo courtesy duncan c/Flickr
Three Ways the Coronavirus Crisis Is Also a Food Crisis
Karen Perry Stillerman, senior analyst, Food and Environment
March 27, 2020 4:44 PM EDT
As the coronavirus crisis keeps most Americans at home, many of us have pantries comfortably stocked with food and can have groceries delivered to our doorsteps in a matter of hours. But millions of our neighbors have trouble putting food on the table in the best of times, and they’re now joined by many more people abruptly facing job loss and hunger. Meanwhile, many of the people who produce and safeguard our food supply are confronted with increased health risk and economic catastrophe. Read more >
punctuated (Flickr)/CC BY-SA 2.0
Trump USDA Commemorates National School Breakfast Week by Declaring Potatoes a Fruit
Sarah Reinhardt, Food Systems & Health Analyst
March 6, 2020 12:33 PM EDT
It’s National School Breakfast Week, and the Trump administration is celebrating by rolling back science-based nutrition standards that are keeping kids healthy at school. Read more >
Bettina Elias Siegel’s “Kid Food” Explains My Daughter’s Love Affair with a Fast Food Chain
Rebecca Boehm, Economist
March 4, 2020 6:47 PM EDT
I’m not a purist about much when it comes to parenting, and that’s by design. And so, I confess: on occasion, our family indulges in a fast food meal, mostly out of what feels like necessity—think ill-planned long car rides or exhaustion after a stomach bug that started at 1 AM. Read more >
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue visits and serves bacon cheeseburgers for lunch to some of the Discovery Elementary School students, in Arlington, VA, during National School Lunch Week, October 15-19, 2018. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
From School Lunch to SNAP, New Attacks on Kids’ Health and Nutrition
Karen Perry Stillerman, senior analyst, Food and Environment
February 18, 2020 11:43 AM EDT
Life comes at you fast, and so does the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on children’s health. Over the last many months, my colleagues in the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Center for Science and Democracy have been hard at work rounding up stories of action or inaction, at agencies from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and beyond, that put the nation’s children in greater danger. Their report and related not-really-for-kids-storybook came out last week, and I encourage you to read them both.
But sadly, the tally is already a bit out of date. Even as our report was in press, the administration was jumping on a few more opportunities to put kids at risk.