The Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape: Fiscal Year 2020 Annual Report

by Saied Toossi, Jordan W. Jones, and Leslie Hodges

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) typically administers 15 domestic food and nutrition assistance programs that affect the lives of millions of people and account for roughly two-thirds of USDA’s annual budget. In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, USDA launched two new programs, Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) and the Farmers to Families Food Box Program (Food Box Program). This report uses preliminary data from USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service and Agricultural Marketing Service to examine program trends in the largest U.S. food and nutrition assistance programs through fiscal year 2020 (October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020) and documents the many policy changes that came into effect since March 2020.

Keywords: Food and nutrition assistance programs, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), Seamless Summer Option (SSO), Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT), Farmers to Families Food Box Program, emergency allotments, food security, coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic, economic conditions

In this publication...

• Entire Report
• Report summary