Community Assets Blog

Heat and Eat: Using Federal Nutrition Programs to Cushion
the Shock of Skyrocketing Heating Bills

Heating fuel costs have been skyrocketing, which will exacerbate the classic heat-or-eat quandary low-income households face in the winter. The federal government expects this winter’s average monthly natural gas heating bill to jump 41 percent, to $173/month, or 19.4 percent of the income from a full-time, minimum wage job.

The federal nutrition programs can’t totally solve this problem for low-income families, but they can help. The new FRAC publication, Heat and Eat: Using Federal Nutrition Programs to Cushion the Shock of Skyrocketing Heating Bills, reviews various strategies in food stamps and child nutrition.

This publication can help state and local officials, food stamp and TANF caseworkers, LIHEAP offices, utility executives and offices, community-based organizations, food banks, anti-hunger advocates, and others seeking to help families with this coming winter’s terrible cost crunch for poor families.