by Veronica Goodman, Director of Social Policy, and Crystal Swann, Senior Policy Fellow
The Trump administration’s feeble response to America’s hunger crisis was a national disgrace, one of the many ways in which it thoroughly bungled the nation’s response to the Covid pandemic. The contrast with the Biden administration’s sharp focus on hunger and decisive moves to alleviate it couldn’t be more dramatic.
Nonetheless, it should be just the beginning of a new national commitment to wiping out hunger and malnutrition in America. It’s time for a vigorous public response to growing concentration in the food industry, as well as a new push to use modern information technologies to help low-income Americans cut through burdensome bureaucratic obstacles and take charge of their economic security. We’ve also learned lessons during the pandemic for how to provide meals to families outside of the traditional systems, and we should preserve these going forward in the effort to be better prepared for a future crisis and to curb hunger in America.
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☑New From The Experts
> Have You Heard of COVID Therapy?
With the State of the Union next week, Biden will have the center stage to discuss his plans for coronavirus recovery. Vaccine distribution and inoculation are picking up and infection rates are going down, but the disease is still deadly –– which is why PPI's Arielle Kane wants Biden to bring attention back to treatments for COVID-19. Therapies, she says, will be crucial to moving forward. → "The President's Address to Congress Is an Opportunity to Highlight Covid-19 Treatments," by Arielle Kane, Medium
> Easy There, Big Spender
A new piece from The Hill reporting on GOP critiques of the proposed $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill highlights commentary from PPI's Ben Ritz, who agrees with the Dems on this issue –– more is more. → "GOP Highlights Unspent Relief Funds in Criticizing Biden Plan," by Niv Elis, The Hill
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> American Hunger, From an Expert Perspective
If Veronica Goodman and Crystal Swann's new report inspired you to learn more about food insecurity in America, catch up on this interview with former PPI Policy Analyst Joel Berg, a long-time hunger advocate and CEO of Hunger Free America. → "Interview with Joel Berg, NYC’s Hunger Free Advocate," by Charles Platkin, NYC Food Policy Center
> Opportunity Costs
Democrats are fighting to ease the debt burden of higher education, but there are concerns debt erasure policies benefit the already-privileged. PPI's David Osborne proposes "career opportunity accounts," to ease debt and help the non-college educated. → "The Progressive Way to Ease Student Debt Burdens," by David Osborne, The Hill
> Open Access Resources
Opioid addiction is a well-documented crisis in America, but the pharmacological treatments for it are hard to come by. PPI's Kaitlin Edwards writes on an easy fix for the Biden admin to make life-saving drugs accessible to the doctors on the frontlines of the opioid-emic. → "Biden Should Ease Access to Key Opioid Treatment," by Kaitlin Edwards, Medium
> An Atrocity Across the Ocean
How and why is China imprisoning millions of Uighurs in their western province of Xinjiang? BuzzFeed News journalists Megha Rajagopalan and Alison Killing join the Neoliberal podcast to talk about how their reporting uncovered a vast network of secret internment camps in Xinjiang. → "The Uighur Genocide ft. Megha Rajagopalan & Alison Killing," by the Neoliberal Project
> Red Rover, Red Rover, Send Perseverance On Over
Join the Neoliberal Project for a replay of its watch party and discussion on NASA, R&D funding, tech and innovation policy as Perseverance lands on Mars. PPI's Jeremiah Johnson hosts on the Neoliberal Twitch channel. → Mars Rover Landing Watch Party
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