In the past two years, six states, Including Arizona, have opted in to the little-used federal Restaurant Meals Program that allows older adults, people with disabilities and people experiencing homelessness to use their food benefits on select, low-cost restaurant meals. Read more»

Women who apply for welfare often have to identify who fathered their children and when they got pregnant, among other deeply personal details, then state governments use that information to pursue child support from the dads — and pocket the money. Read more»

COVID-19 has laid bare the devastating cost of inequality in the U.S., with more than 600,000 people having died from the virus - but Black and Hispanic people are at least twice as likely as white Americans to die of the virus, showing the crisis didn’t hit everyone equally. Read more»

Working on a “a national effort to end hunger,” a Massachusetts congressmen joined Rep. Raul Grijalva on Wednesday for a tour of a Tucson food bank that has seen the daily demand for assistance double during the pandemic. Read more»

The financial fallout of COVID-19 has pushed child hunger to record levels. Counties seeing the largest increases in child food insecurity in 2020 generally have much higher median household incomes than counties with the smallest increases. Read more»

The number of food stamp recipients in Arizona has surged over the past year, but advocates worry that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is still only reaching a portion of those eligible for assistance. Read more»

Six Arizona mayors were among hundreds who urged Congress to pass a $1.9 trillion pandemic-relief bill that includes $350 billion in aid for state and local governments. Read more»

Advocates fear that years of steady improvements in the level of “food insecurity” among Arizona children could be reversed this year by the economic toll of COVID-19, a shift that could have long-lasting effects. Read more»

The Trump administration’s rule preventing immigrants who receive any form of public assistance from obtaining green cards is “unmoored” from the intent of Congress, the Second Circuit ruled Tuesday. Read more»

Advocates told a House subcommittee Thursday that a Trump administration plan to “close loopholes” in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would actually slam the door on millions of recipients, including as many as 72,000 in Arizona. Read more»

The Trump administration’s proposed changes to the so-called public charge rule have caused widespread confusion among immigrant communities across the U.S. Under the new policy, use of such benefits as food stamps, housing assistance and Medicaid would be among the considerations used to determine whether immigrants are eligible for admission into the U.S. or to obtain a green card. Read more»

The Trump administration issued a rule Monday that allows the government to deny green cards or visas to people who rely on public benefit programs, or if they might need such programs, including food stamps, Medicaid and housing subsidies, in the future. Read more»

Arizona is one of the 43 states that could be affected by a Trump administration proposal to tighten restrictions on access to food stamps for people receiving other financial assistance. Read more»

A Trump administration plan to limit public assistance for legal immigrants simply “passes the buck down to cities who are going to have to figure out how to pay” for the lost benefits, local officials were told Monday. Read more»

Food banks across Arizona launched mobile services to help federal workers during the recent five-week shutdown, which taught them how to prepare for the possibility of another shutdown. Read more»