Two reports on hunger, nutrition, and health have been released recently, one from Feeding America and another from the Task Force on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. They both align on several major policy suggestions, including expanding SNAP, backing produce prescription & incentive programs, and enhancing the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.

Feeding America’s report underscores the importance of increasing funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and simplifying its paperwork. It also suggests maintaining the use of the Commodity Credit Corporation, which was recently employed by USDA to provide almost $1 billion in extra funding for emergency food providers. These elements receive minimal attention in the Task Force‘s report.

The Task Force report deliberately confines its focus to issues directly tied to hunger, nutrition, and health, avoiding broader topics like economic opportunity and social determinants of health. In contrast, Feeding America advocates for a broader scope, suggesting investments in public transportation, affordable housing, immigrant communities, and expanding tax credits.

Both reports value innovation but interpret it differently. Feeding America suggests novel ways of food delivery, such as refrigerated food lockers or mobile food trucks, while the Task Force strives to support food businesses run by marginalized groups and encourage the private sector to enhance the nutritional quality of food.

On the issue of restricting SNAP users from buying low-nutrition food, both reports lean towards expanding incentives for healthy food purchases rather than limiting choice.

Feeding America’s report is informed by a large-scale effort to gather insights from about 36,000 individuals who have experienced food insecurity across all states. It shows that most respondents support raising SNAP income limits, increasing local food supply, and overwhelmingly agree that food is medicine.

In comparison, the Task Force report offers more in-depth views from clients, devoting a significant portion of their 128-page report to detailed summaries of their own listening sessions, which involved an estimated 150 people with lived experience. A recurring suggestion in the Task Force’s listening sessions was to allow SNAP to be used for buying hot or prepared meals.