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Papers

The effect of Pandemic EBT on measures of food hardship

By: Lauren Bauer, Abigail Pitts, Krista Ruffini, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach
July 30, 2020
Education, Social Insurance
Full paper

 

Abstract

In the spring of 2020, 55 million school-age children were not in school and tens of millions lost access to school-based nutrition assistance programs. To alleviate the effects of lost daily school meals and to help households with children meet their nutritional needs, Congress authorized a new program, Pandemic EBT, which provides families with a voucher to purchase groceries for an amount equal in value to the school meals missed from the start of school closures to the end of the 2019–20 school year. We find that Pandemic EBT reduced food hardship experienced by low-income families with children and lifted at least 2.7-3.9 million children out of hunger.

Full paperpdfTechnical appendixpdf

Related Links

An update on the effect of Pandemic EBT on measures of food hardship
The COVID-19 crisis has already left too many children hungry in America
The case for and challenges of delivering in-kind nutrition assistance to children

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Authors

Lauren Bauer

Associate Director

Abigail Pitts

Research Analyst, Northwestern University

Krista Ruffini

Visiting Scholar at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank’s Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute; Assistant Professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

Margaret Walker Alexander Professor, Northwestern University; Nonresident Fellow, Economic Studies, Brookings Institution

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