Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor penned a commentary for CNN calling for a national plan of action to address the increase in child hunger in the wake of COVID-19. Astor, who recently published a research brief on social workers’ recommendations for reopening schools this fall, wrote that many students’ basic needs – such as food, housing and mental health – are not being adequately addressed. “Students are hungry today,” he wrote. “They cannot wait to eat only after a vaccine is found and distributed.” Pre-pandemic, approximately 5 billion free or reduced-price lunches were served to students across the country each year. Now, collective national action is urgently needed to make sure these schoolchildren do not go hungry, Astor argued. He called for expanded government funding, a public-private collaboration among food banks and food industry partners, and a redeployment of school police forces to reconnect the school and community in a spirit of care rather than feeding the school-to-prison pipeline.