Little, Lauren A. “Siblings Alexander Francisco, 6, and Jovani Francisco, 8, pick up meals in Reading, Pennsylvania, on March 26, 2020.” MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images.
Early responses to COVID-19 offered struggling Americans temporary emergency support in the form of stimulus payments as Congress passed vital — yet short term — improvements to federal nutrition programs. When President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he centered the government’s responsibility to take care of those in need with key policies that were part of his “American Rescue Plan.” While many of these programs brought a measure of stability to American households throughout the pandemic, their temporary nature meant critical programs were due to sunset with the end of the public health emergency, even as families continued to struggle.
Museum Map
LOBBY
THE
WISHING
TREE
WISHING
TREE
THE SNAP CAFÉ
AUDITORIUM
TERRACE RESTAURANT
The Hunger Museum
We Can Solve Hunger —
The Proof is in Our History
The Proof is in Our History
- 1.Welcome
- 2.Museum Lobby
- 3.Jewish Immigration from Eastern Europe
- 4.Immigration from Europe
- 5.Immigration from Europe
- 6.Jane Addams and Hull House
- 7.The Dark Side of Nutrition Science
- 8.On the Breadline
- 9.Beginnings
- 10.How did the Food Stamp Program work?
- 11.Farm Family Portraits
- 12.An Unequal Recovery
- 13.1945-1965: WWII and the Paradoxes of the Postwar Era
- 14.Norman Rockwell, “Freedom From Want”
- 15.How did the National School Lunch Program work?
- 16.What were the structural limitations of the National School Lunch Program’s reach?
- 17.What were the structural limitations of the National School Lunch Program’s reach?
- 18.“New Frigidaire Refrigerators!” by General Motors
- 19.Hunger, Justice, and Civil Rights - Landing
- 20.Hunger, Justice, and Civil Rights - Main
- 21.Lunch Counter Student Sit-Ins (Greensboro, NC)
- 22.United Bronx Parents (Washington, DC)
- 23.Fannie Lou Hamer and Freedom Farmers (Sunflower County, MS)
- 24.Cesar Chavez’s Fast for Nonviolence (Delano, CA)
- 25.The Fish Wars (Nisqually, WA)
- 26.Fannie Lou Hamer on CBS News Series “Of Black America”
- 27.Marian Wright, Peter Edelman, and the Mule Train
- 28.President Lyndon B. Johnson
- 29.Dr. Jean Mayer and the White House Conference
- 30.1975-1996: The Unmaking of the Great Society
- 31.Government Cheese
- 32.The Welfare Queen
- 33.Welfare Reform
- 34.COVID-19 – Food Distribution
- 35.One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1) Signing Ceremony
- 36.“Cry with your full throat, without restraint; Raise your voice like a shofar!” – Isaiah 58:1
- 37.Wishing Tree
- 38.End tour
MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger