Food insecurity has reached a critical point in the United States.
Currently, more than 44 million Ameircans face hunger, including one in five children, with the need for nutrition assistance at its highest point in 20 years. Those employed in agriculture, food processing and food service — ironically, often the same positions deemed “essential” during the pandemic — frequently earn wages insufficient to cover basic living expenses, including the cost of nutritious food.
A recent analysis conducted by the Urban Institute found that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits did not cover the cost of a modestly-priced meal in 98% of U.S counties last year, yet Republicans are intent on cutting the program even further.
Against this backdrop, Vice President Kamala Harris's potential nomination for the 2024 presidential election brings renewed focus on her extensive record addressing food insecurity and labor issues.
As a U.S. Senator and California's Attorney General, Harris has championed numerous initiatives aimed at reducing hunger and improving economic conditions for low-income families. Her legislative efforts, such as the introduction of the Closing the Meal Gap Act of 2020 and her support for the American Families Plan, underscore her commitment to ensuring access to nutritious food for all Americans, though her involvement with raising the federal minimum wage is slightly more complex.
Here’s a deeper look:
Food insecurity
“Short of having somebody who has actually worked in the food system or has experienced hunger themselves, she’s about as good as they get on food and hunger,” Jessica Bartholow, a policy advocate for the nonpartisan Western Center on Law & Poverty, told Civil Eats in 2020, just after Biden had selected Harris as his running mate.
Four months prior, in her position as a California state senator, Harris — along with Senators Elizabeth Warren, Mazie K. Hirono and Christopher F. Murphy — wrote a letter to Sonny Perdue, the then-secretary of the USDA, urging him to reconsider the “blanket denial of waiver requests from states wishing to maintain eligibility in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for college students who have lost their employment due to COVID-19.”
One month after that, in May 2020, Harris co-introduced the Closing the Meal Gap Act of 2020, which was intended to expand SNAP benefits amid the pandemic.
"We are in the midst of a historic economic crisis — people are hurting,” Harris wrote at the time. “They are struggling to put food on the table, and existing nutrition benefits don't get people through the end of the month. Folks are looking to Congress to take immediate action to help them make ends meet. I'm proud to introduce the Closing the Meal Gap Act because we need to give people the resources they need to afford food during tough times. No one in America should ever go hungry, especially during a public health crisis."
That same month, Harris also aided in introducing the bipartisan FEMA Empowering Essential Deliveries (FEED) Act. The legislation, which was endorsed by several celebrity chefs including José Andrés, allows the Federal government to pay 100% of the cost to states and localities so that they can partner with restaurants and nonprofits to prepare nutritious meals for vulnerable populations, such as seniors and underprivileged children.
In April 2021, Biden and Harris unveiled the American Families Plan, a sweeping initiative designed to combat child hunger and ensure year-round access to nutritious meals for children. Central to the plan was the expansion of the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program, which would provide 29 million children who qualify for free or reduced-price school meals with a permanent monthly benefit to purchase food during the summer. This approach addresses the increased food insecurity that occurs when school is not in session.
The plan also proposed increasing the number of high-poverty schools offering free meals to all students through community eligibility, reducing the threshold for elementary schools to participate and raising the reimbursement multiplier, making the program more financially viable. Additionally, children receiving Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) would be automatically eligible for free school meals nationwide, streamlining administrative processes and ensuring the most vulnerable children receive necessary nutrition.
A $1 billion healthy foods initiative is included to support schools in meeting higher nutrition standards, reflecting the critical role of child nutrition programs highlighted by the pandemic.
This plan — many elements of which remain under legislative consideration, especially with the current controversy over the 2024 Farm Bill — has been lauded by food insecurity-focused organizations, ranging from the Food Research & Action Center to the California Association of Food Banks, which reported that their affiliate banks now see double the amount of clients they did prior to the pandemic.
Labor
Many labor advocates within the food sector have already voiced their support for Kamala Harris’ potential presidential campaign, including Teresa Romero, the president of United Farm Workers, a labor union for agricultural workers. In a Sunday release, Romero characterized President Biden as “the greatest the United Farm Workers has had in the Oval Office.”
“The Biden-Harris administration has worked tirelessly on behalf of farm workers, from championing state legislation to strengthen farm workers’ right to join a union, to ensuring undocumented essential workers were eligible for COVID vaccines and relief payments, to working to raise wages and increase legal protections in the exploitative H2A agricultural guest worker system, to proposing the nation’s first ever federal standards to protect farm workers from dying during extreme temperatures,” Romero wrote. “President Biden deserves the gratitude and respect of all Americans for his lifelong service to our country and his fierce dedication to working people across America.”
Now, the United Farm Workers as an organization is endorsing Harris as the “best leader to defeat Donald Trump” and to continue the work of the Biden-Harris administration, writing that she has stood with farm workers in California — the nation’s largest agricultural producer — as California Attorney General, as a United States Senator and as Vice President.
“The United Farm Workers could not be prouder to endorse her for President of the United States,” Romero wrote.
This endorsement is reminiscent of the statement the United Farm Workers sent out after Biden chose her as his running mate. The organization praised the decision then, citing how Harris has a long history of working directly with the UFW. For instance, she joined farm worker marches and the 2016 UFW convention.
As senator, Harris also joined the UFW in “leading a national petition drive that organized 100,000 public comments opposing Trump’s attempts to reduce farm worker wages” under the federal H-2A agricultural guest worker program.
Off the farm, Harris’ record on labor is a little more complex; take, for instance, how she has engaged with calls to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
In 2019, Harris made headlines for joining striking and marching McDonald’s workers in Des Moines, Iowa. “These golden arches are not representing opportunity,” Harris said, while standing in a pool of red-shirted workers in a McDonald’s parking lot. “We are not paying people a minimum wage that allows a minimum standard of living.”
She continued: “Let’s, one, bust the myth and make it clear families are relying on these salaries, and they must be paid $15 an hour.”
However, as reported by economist Dawn Allcott, once Harris joined the Biden administration she was in a position to overrule Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough's ruling to remove a $15 minimum wage provision in a Covid-19 relief bill. She didn't take that action —one that would have directly undermined Biden who spent 36 years in the Senate and, per the Los Angeles Times, “regards its traditions with reverence” — which meant the minimum wage increase didn't happen.
This ruffled many Democrats, including the Rev. William Barber II, one of the nation’s leading civil rights activists who, at the time, served as the co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
“We have it on tape,” Barber told the Los Angeles Times in 2020. “Her and Biden and the entire Democratic Party, their platform says they want to eradicate poverty. Her and Biden ran on 15 — never said ’15 unless the parliamentarian advises not to.’”
That said, as pointed out by economist Dawn Allcot, if Harris was to become the president, she would only have so much power when it comes to actually adjusting the minimum wage, as it is set by Congress through legislation.
“But, wage workers don’t just encompass those making minimum wage. More significantly, Harris has also shown support of unions, a fact which could help her garner support from service workers, trade workers and educators,” Allcot wrote. “Her support of unions could help wage workers fight for everything from increased wages to better benefits.”
One relatively recent and tangible example of Harris’ support of unions is how she advocated for the continuation of “hazard pay” for grocery workers during the pandemic. Along with Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 835,000 grocery store workers, Harris wrote an Aug. 2020 commentary for CNN simply titled: “Why grocery store workers deserve hazard pay.”
“Our country is hurting. People are losing their jobs, parents are struggling to keep a roof over their kids’ heads and Americans are getting sick and dying in record numbers,” they wrote. “The pain and suffering is often too much to bear. As this crisis continues, we must remember all of the frontline workers who are continuing to put themselves in harm’s way to help others make it through these challenging times.”
The letter continued: “While top grocery chains rake in billions in profits during this pandemic, these frontline workers cannot choose to work from home like the corporate executives of these companies do. The responsibility to properly protect and support store workers lies with these executives, who must make the decision to consistently pay workers a wage that justly compensates them for the clear and present dangers of their jobs during the pandemic.”
