How Nutrition Programs Can Better Prevent Hunger Among Grandfamilies

What did your latest report on grandfamilies find?

We decided to focus this year’s report on an issue we knew anecdotally was affecting grandfamilies: food insecurity. We’re extremely grateful to FRAC for providing the data that allowed us to illustrate the numbers behind the stories we’d been hearing from grandfamilies across the country. Food insecurity means these families do not have the resources they need to have consistent and reliable access to enough food to live an active, healthy life. The impact is severe: it can harm the health, nutrition, and economic security of children and adults. It has particularly harmful effects on children.

The data was striking: 25 percent of grandparent-headed households with grandchildren and no parent present experienced food insecurity between 2019 and 2020. That’s 60 percent higher than the rate of all households with children (25% vs. 15%). Among older (aged 60+) grandparent-headed households with grandchildren and no parents, the rate of food insecurity was more than three times higher than the rate of similar households (adults 60+) with no children (22% vs. 7%).

Why are grandfamilies at increased risk for food insecurity?

The most important context for this report is that research has shown again and again that grandfamilies are the best option for children who can’t be raised by their parents. Compared to children in foster care with nonrelatives, children raised by relatives have better mental and behavioral health outcomes, greater stability, and a stronger sense of belonging. They are more likely to report feeling loved. However, taking on full-time care of a child, often unexpectedly, can lead to new or increased financial challenges for caregivers, including a lack of affordable childcare, increased cost of nutritious food, or a loss of housing or employment.

One grandfamily caregiver featured in the report, Alice Carter, said that when she stepped in to raise two grandchildren on her own, she lost her job because she couldn’t travel to work sites without childcare.

What role do federal nutrition programs play in meeting grandfamilies’ needs?

For example, SNAP eligibility is based on household income, with no option to base it on the income of the child only. Many grandfamilies have fixed incomes or household incomes slightly too high to qualify, yet struggle to adequately feed the children they are raising while also addressing their own needs. Grandfamilies are also not automatically income-eligible for WIC or free and reduced-price school meals. If a child had been receiving WIC benefits while living with a parent, it’s difficult to transfer those when a grandfamily caregiver takes over. And, since a large number of grandfamilies live in rural areas or other areas where there are limited or no summer programs, children in grandfamilies have limited access to participating in summer meal sites.

How can federal nutrition programs better serve grandfamilies?

Our report outlines many ways that these programs can help grandfamilies, including by: 

• supporting the development and use of kinship navigator programs to connect grandfamilies to food and nutrition supports; 
• making a “child-only” SNAP benefit that is based on the needs of the child as opposed to household income; 
• improving WIC outreach to help reach more grandfamilies and connect them with benefits; 
• ensuring automatic access to free and reduced-price school meals; and 
• helping grandfamilies cover meal costs through a nationwide summer electronic benefit transfer program.