Advocate for Change

Take Action on Hunger

Food Bank Releases 2022 Status Report on Hunger

The Food Bank’s 2022 Status Report on Hunger in Rhode Island shows that 31 percent of households were food insecure and unable to afford adequate food. Food insecurity is now three times more prevalent than before the pandemic. For people of color, the number is even higher.

Household budgets were stretched thin by rapid inflation in rent, fuel, and food. From July 2021 to July 2022, food costs in Rhode Island went up 13 percent. Heating oil prices increased 43% in the same time period.

Advocate for Low Income Families:

The expanded Child Tax Credit significantly reduced child poverty, with the greatest gains realized by children in Black and Latino families, but it was not renewed by Congress this year. When the public health emergency is lifted, Rhode Island will lose $13 million per month in emergency SNAP benefits. Urge Rhode Island’s Congressional Delegation to reinstate the expanded Child Tax Credit and increase SNAP benefit levels in the upcoming Farm Bill.

For the past two years, public schools received federal funds to provide lunch and breakfast to all students free-of-charge. Several New England States, including Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont, have continued this program with state funding after the federal mandate ended in September. Call on the Governor to use state funds to make school lunch and school breakfast free for all students to ensure that children have access to the nutritious food necessary for good health and academic achievement.

Thank legislators in the General Assembly who voted this year to enact the state Child Tax Credit, fund SNAP incentives, and boost funding for the Food Bank.