After driving 15,000 miles across the country, HFA CEO Joel Berg finds that hunger affects every corner of the U.S.

Dear Friend,

After driving 15,000 miles through 37 states over the last two months, I've finally returned home to Brooklyn, New York. This journey has been an incredible one that brought me to a Summer Meals site in rural New Mexico to a bustling farmer's markets in Austin, Texas to a WIC clinic in Los Angeles. Through meeting with partner organizations, AmeriCorps VISTA members, and others working on the front lines of hunger, it is clear that food insecurity is far from over. But, there is hope.

To start, there are incredible people working on the ground everyday to make sure that children and families receive the food they need -- from delivering free, federally-funded summer meals to helping households apply for SNAP and WIC benefits to distributing fresh produce and other essential items. But there is even more optimism in the fight against hunger with USDA's recent announcement that SNAP benefits will be permanently increased by about 25 percent starting October 1st. This is a historical moment for the SNAP program and one that will make a huge difference for the 40 million Americans who rely on these vital benefits.

I spoke to Tiffany Cross on MSNBC a few days ago ([link removed]) alongside an AmeriCorps member who is also a SNAP recipient about what this increase means and why it's important at this moment in time.

[link removed]
Speaking on The Cross Connection with Tiffany Cross on MSNBC.

As we always do when there is a victory at Hunger Free America, we celebrate this important milestone but we continue the fight. There is more work to be done to make sure that every household eligible for SNAP applies for the program and receives benefits and to advocate for making the program more accessible through a simpler application process and eliminating time limits. We will keep doing what we do best -- assisting food insecure households apply for nutrition benefits, conducting research on hunger policy, and advocating for legislation that will make a meaningful difference for hungry Americans.

But we can't do this work without your support. I hope you'll consider becoming a sustaining supporter of Hunger Free America so that every month we can count on your generosity to fuel our work. It is only with your support that we can continue to help food insecure families and truly end hunger once and for all.

Thank you,
Joel
Become a Sustaining Supporter ([link removed])

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