Harder Leads Letter Urging Focus on Student Hunger at Tomorrow’s White House Conference on Hunger

WASHINGTON – Today, Representative Josh Harder led a letter joined by 46 Members of Congress to President Biden urging his administration focus on the crisis of student hunger at tomorrow’s White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. According to a recent study of more than 40,000 students, 52% of California community college students report facing food insecurity and 41% of California community college students report skipping meals or eating smaller portions for financial reasons. At the same time, California ranks among the most expensive states in the country in monthly food cost per person, at $370.96.

“No student in the Valley should be sitting in class more worried about where they’ll get their next meal than about their schoolwork,” said Rep. Harder. “As the White House prioritizes solving the hunger crisis in America, I’m asking the president to take real action to ensure our students aren’t going to bed hungry at night.”

Tomorrow’s conference, the first White House Conference on Hunger in over 50 years, will catalyze the public and private sectors around a coordinated strategy to end hunger, improve nutrition and physical activity, and close the disparities surrounding these issues. Rep. Harder was also joined by Congressman Jimmy Gomez, Congressman Jimmy Panetta, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in leading the letter.

Rep. Harder has been a leading advocate for addressing student hunger since his first days in Congress. His bill, the Enhanced Access to SNAP (EATS) Actwould amend the Food and Nutrition Act to include "attending an institution of higher education" as a form of qualification, expanding SNAP eligibility to millions of college students experiencing hunger.

See the full text of the letter below and online here.

Dear President Biden,     

We applaud the Biden-Harris Administration on hosting the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in over 50 years. We thank you for leading a coordinated strategy on hunger and write to highlight the growing crisis of student food insecurity, which threatens the ability of higher education to serve as a vehicle for socioeconomic mobility. While Congress works to permanently expand access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for college students, we appreciate your engagement on this issue and would be encouraged to see the inclusion of student food insecurity as a priority in the Administration’s national strategy to end hunger.

The Biden-Harris Administration has already taken great steps to advance racial equity for students, including through targeted student debt relief for 43 million borrowers with the highest economic need. Improving food security for college students aligns with the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing efforts to ensure higher education opportunities remain accessible for all. Nutrition is also increasingly a matter of equity for students. Low-income students, Black and Indigenous students, first-generation students, and students who are members of the LGBTQ+ community are at highest risk of experiencing food insecurity.

SNAP is one of our nation’s most effective tools for combatting hunger and alleviating poverty, however eligibility requirements for students are complicated. There are many actions the Administration can explore to ease student access to SNAP, such as encouraging state agencies to use information collected by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and to notify students who received Free or Reduced-Price Meals (FRPM) of their potential eligibility.

Again, we applaud the Biden-Harris Administration for hosting the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. As Congress continues to work on permanently expanding access to SNAP for college students, we would appreciate the inclusion of student food insecurity in the Administration’s national strategy to end hunger and improve nutrition. We look forward to continuing to work with your administration to create an equitable, healthy learning environment for our county’s future leaders.

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