Organizations, parents prepare for loss of summer EBT program

About six years ago, Raynata Lockett found out that she would soon lose a lifeline for herself and her four children. She had been receiving federally-funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, also known as food stamps, for a decade.

But just as Lockett, a United States Army veteran, was set to graduate from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, she was told that because of disability benefits she received from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, her income was $100 above the threshold to qualify for the program.

Since then, Lockett said she’s had to use food pantries to help feed her children. A New Orleans native, Lockett relocated to Lafayette after Hurricane Katrina. She still lives there now but plans to move back. She currently works as a substitute teacher, so it’s more challenging to get food during the summer months when school is out and she’s not working,  she said.

But when the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) program initially launched as the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program in 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lockett was able to qualify and said it was a substantial help for her household.

The Summer EBT program is available to those that make up to 185% of the federal poverty level, a higher threshold than regular SNAP benefits.

But because Louisiana is not participating in the program this summer, Lockett is faced with an extra expense. She has to manage the cost of enrolling her kids in summer camp, along with putting food on the table. That extra money could’ve been used for utility bills or to buy school uniforms for her kids, she said.

“It’s not fair that these children should have to feel that they’re going to camp or they’re going to be home this summer, and have to worry about how they’re going to eat,” Lockett said.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration announced in February that the state will not accept federal funds to continue the Summer EBT program. The program would’ve provided qualifying families $40 a month per eligible child to cover food costs whenever school went out of session, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Louisiana joins 11 other Republican-led states that opted out of the program for 2024.

Legislation has been introduced at the state Capitol to fund the Summer EBT program and some legislators are in support of the bill, according to a report from the Times-Picayune, but it hasn’t made it out of committee.

The governor’s spokesperson Kate Kelly said in a press statement that the pandemic-era program is no longer needed and that the administrative costs of $7 million would be too high for the state. Kelly added that the state already administers tens of millions in federal safety net dollars through SNAP, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and others.

“Under these numerous programs, every child will be able to receive the meals they need throughout the summer,” Kelly said in the statement.

However, had Louisiana accepted the Summer EBT funds, the federal government would’ve paid half of the administrative costs, leaving the state with a $3.5 million price tag. That investment would have yielded the state an estimated $71 million in federal dollars to provide about 549,000 kids with Summer EBT benefits.

More than half a million Louisiana residents suffer from food insecurity — and the state ranks second in childhood hunger with more than 234,000 children that are food insecure — according to Feeding America. In New Orleans, almost one-fifth of residents are food insecure, the group added.

Louisiana ranks second in the United States for childhood hunger with more than 234,000 children across the state suffering from food insecurity, according to Feeding Louisiana. Landry’s decision to forgo the $71 million in federal funding for the program comes at a time when nationwide inflation, including food prices, have ballooned since the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to an analysis by the USDA, Louisiana could’ve seen an economic impact of more than $100 million had the state’s administration opted into the program.

Natalie Jayroe, president of Second Harvest Food Bank, which provides food to more than 700 community partners and programs across southern Louisiana, said it’s baffling that the state decided not to continue the program this year.

“I don’t understand how it benefits Louisiana in any way, especially our children …. When Louisiana taxpayers pay dollars to the federal government, and the federal government then says, ‘I’m gonna give you $71 million of your tax dollars back to feed your kids that are in need,’ you say yes,” Jayroe said. “It doesn’t help us or Louisiana one bit to say no to that money.”

Now families and food advocacy groups are preparing for a summer without those benefits to help feed children in the state.

Second Harvest is preparing to double the number of meals it delivers to locations around the state through its summer feeding program to meet the increased demand created by the discontinuation of the program, said Natalie Jayroe, president of the Second Harvest Food Bank. But Second Harvest has seen food donations drop due to inflated costs and monetary donations, which spiked during the early part of the pandemic, slow down.

“After a while … people’s own budgets are stretched,” Jayroe said. “The people [that may have given] us a $25 donation may not be able to keep doing it time after time…so programs like this summer EBT are just so…valuable.”

She said the problem of food insecurity could become worse in the future without the Summer EBT program.

The Louisiana Anti-Hunger Coalition hosted a rally and press conference in front of the state Capitol March 27. Led by Feeding Louisiana and consisting of anti-hunger and food advocacy groups across the state like Second Harvest and No Kid Left Hungry, the coalition wanted to bring awareness to the state’s hunger situation and ask for money to provide more food to families.

“We need and are asking for the legislature’s help,” Jayroe said.

Feeding Louisiana is asking for $5 million to distribute to its network of food banks, which includes Second Harvest, so that they can buy additional food from farmers throughout the state.

‘It’s not right.’

The Summer EBT Program, though created as a pandemic emergency response, is being made permanent on the federal level to provide food benefits to low-income children while they are out of school and can’t access free, school-based breakfast and lunch. because schools are closed during the summer and not serving breakfast and lunch to low-income students.

Avis Williams, superintendent of the NOLA Public Schools district, wrote an op-ed in March urging Landry to reconsider discontinuing the program. Verite News contacted the NOLA Public Schools to see what, if anything, city schools might be doing to fill the gap left by the state discontinuing the program, but the school district did not respond to requests for comment before publication.

State legislators have introduced bills in the 2024 legislative session aimed at alleviating food insecurity for the state’s most vulnerable. Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, sponsored HB 287, which would allocate money in the state budget to provide for the Summer EBT program this upcoming summer.

However, there are other bills, like HB 260, that Feeding Louisiana says would make it harder for those who are food insecure. The bill, which was introduced by Rep. Troy Romero, R-Jennings, would limit the types of food purchases that people can make with their SNAP benefits. The bill would prohibit SNAP recipients from using their benefits to buy “unhealthy snack foods” such as chips, fried foods, cookies, cakes, certain beverages and more.

Feeding Louisiana said in an explainer made for the capitol rally that Romero’s bill would be an administrative burden on grocers and would limit SNAP recipients from choosing foods that would best suit their and their families’ needs.

Neither Hughes’ nor Romero’s bill has yet gone to a vote.

In the meantime, Lockett has to budget for a summer without the program. She said her children are breakfast lovers and that her household goes through a gallon of milk in a week. That money, Lockett says, could’ve been used to buy her kids’ school uniforms if the Summer EBT program were still in effect.

Lockett said she doesn’t understand why there is so much debate around providing benefits for families to feed themselves.

“I served my country, and I went overseas, and we fed so many kids,” Lockett said. “But then I have to come home and justify why we have to feed our own children. It’s not right.”

This article first appeared on Verite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.