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May 27, 2020

Federal Food Program Fails to Reach Millions Even as Child Hunger Surges in U.S.
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As the official U.S. death toll from COVID-19 is set to top 100,000 this
week, rates of child hunger are soaring across the United States.
Despite the surge, a federal program to feed schoolchildren who've been
cut off from school meals during the pandemic has reached only a small
fraction of the 30 million students it was intended to help. The New
York Times reports only 15% of eligible children have received benefits
under the Pandemic EBT program, even though a fifth of U.S. mothers in a
recent survey reported their children were not getting enough to eat.

Meanwhile, the Census Bureau reports more than a third of all U.S.
adults are showing signs of clinical anxiety or depression during the
pandemic. That figure is about double the rate found in a survey in
2014.


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