New Options to Combat Summer Hunger: What Counties Need to Know
Virtual Event | Zoom
If you are having trouble registering for the webinar or need technical assistance in accessing the Zoom platform, please email nacomeetings@naco.org.
Summer hunger impacts too many children when they lose access to nutritious school meals. But thanks to bipartisan action by Congress last year, state and local governments have two powerful new tools to fight hunger and better meet the nutritional needs of children during the summer months: “grab and go” meals for eligible children in certain rural areas and, starting in 2024, the permanent nationwide “Summer EBT” program, which will provide benefits for low-income households with children to purchase food over the summer. Join NACo and representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) for a webinar reviewing these new programs, including recent guidance and strategies for county governments to support implementation to ensure that all eligible children access this new, critical support.
Resource
The County Role in Food Systems
Congress seeking ‘common-sense solutions’ to unmet mental health needs
Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.): “Right now, it is too difficult to access providers … and get mental health care in a facility that is the right size and also the appropriate acuity level to meet patients’ needs.”
Federal-level child welfare priorities center on supporting foster youth, families
Child welfare experts outlined current priorities at the federal level, including better supporting foster care youth who age out of the system and recruiting more foster parents, at NACo’s Human Services and Education Policy Steering Committee meeting.
Prince William County transforms crisis care through "No Wrong Door" approach
Prince William County, Va.’s Crisis Receiving Center is bridging the gap between emergency room care and traditional outpatient care in behavioral crisis response and reducing burden on local law enforcement and hospitals.
House Agriculture Committee introduces 2026 Farm Bill
On February 13, House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.-15) introduced the House version of the 2026 Farm Bill, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026.
USDA and HHS release new dietary guidelines
On January 7, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. unveiled the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030.
