Strategies and Challenges in Feeding Out-of-School Students

Strategies and Challenges in Feeding Out-of-School Students. Urban Institute. Jonathan Schwabish et al. April 21, 2020

In response to school closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation’s school nutrition programs have transformed into emergency community feeding systems, delivering meals to out-of-school students, their families, and in many districts, other members of the community. Because the crisis is expected to continue and the sustainability of many districts’ emergency operations is unknown, researchers at the Urban Institute assessed the challenges facing families and districts across the nation, the strategies districts are employing to ensure students and families can continue to access nutritious meals, and the situation’s implications for policy changes or future emergencies. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 20 pages].

Marriage: America’s Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty

Marriage: America’s Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty. The Heritage Foundation. Robert Rector. September 5, 2012.

Child poverty is an ongoing national concern, but few are aware that its principal cause is the absence of married fathers in the home. Marriage remains America’s strongest anti-poverty weapon, yet it continues to decline. As husbands disappear from the home, poverty and welfare dependence will increase, and children and parents will suffer as a result. Since marital decline drives up child poverty and welfare dependence, and since the poor aspire to healthy marriage but lack the norms, understanding, and skills to achieve it, it is reasonable for government to take active steps to strengthen marriage. Just as government discourages youth from dropping out of school, it should provide information that will help people to form and maintain healthy marriages and delay childbearing until they are married and economically stable, according to the report. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 19 pages, 1.61 MB].