Unless the governor renews it by January 1st, which he has stated he does not intend to do, a federal program that provided summer nourishment to hundreds of thousands of Tennessee youngsters faces expiration.
When the school year ends, low-income families can spend the $120 per kid that is provided by the Summer EBT program on electronic benefits transfer, or EBT, cards to purchase food. The program, which was first implemented as a short-term pandemic relief measure, is now a permanent summer alternative and has assisted numerous households in affording wholesome food: According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, which is in charge of Summer EBT, around 21 million children nationwide benefited from it this summer.
For children to receive the summer grocery credits, states must choose to participate in the federally funded program. Some states have chosen not to, citing administrative expenses that are partially covered by state budgets as well as pre-existing food programs that, according to leaders, provide sufficient nutrition during the summer months.
According to the USDA, 37 states, including Tennessee, took part in the Summer EBT program, also called SUN Bucks, this summer.
The anti-hunger advocacy group Food Research & Action Center is urging Republican Gov. Bill Lee and others to reconsider, saying Tennessee is one of roughly a dozen states that could reject a total of $1.14 billion in federal funding for feeding 9.5 million children next summer.
According to Kelsey Boone, senior child nutrition policy analyst at FRAC, “we know that summer can be the hungriest time for children, and when the school year ends, millions of children nationwide lose access to school meals.”
The Summer Food Service Program, which provides free kids’ meals and snacks at places like parks and schools, is one of the other solutions that she stated are beneficial for lowering children’s food poverty. However, families are frequently unable to get to summer meal venues due to work schedules, lack of transportation, and other reasons.
“Summer EBT is so important because those summer meals only reach a fraction of the children who need them,” Boone added.
Advocates believe Tennessee has an especially strong need, but they want other states to sign up for Summer EBT. Families are frequently located far from food banks or other meal distribution locations due to the country’s many rural, hilly areas. Making things worse: The hardships of residents were made worse by Hurricane Helene, which struck in late September and devastated some communities in the eastern part of the state that already had high rates of poverty and hunger. Neighboring state North Carolina, which was also devastated by Helene, has stated its commitment to Summer EBT for 2025.
Supporters claim that Summer EBT has a track record in Tennessee, where state data indicates that over 656,000 youngsters took use of it this year, allowing their households to purchase fresh produce, fruits, and other necessities.
Among the recipients of the summer benefits were Bobbi Jo Miller’s three school-age children. Miller, a single mother in Tennessee’s Unicoi County, is unable to work due to her disability. Her inability to drive makes it difficult for her to take her children to summer meal locations. With the Summer EBT funds, she said she was able to join neighbors and friends on their trips to supermarkets to buy staples such as eggs, milk, bread and cereal.
When she learned that Lee had no plans to renew the program in 2025, she broke down in tears.
“My income is very fixed,” she remarked. It is devastating to learn that the governor refuses to assist in the one small way that he is able.
Miller has not yet mentioned to her children, the youngest of whom is 9, that they might not have funds on their EBT cards next summer because she doesn t want to cause them stress. But she s already wondering how she will make ends meet once the school year ends.
I have no clue how I m going to do it, she said. I m worried.
Her concerns are echoed by anti-hunger advocates such as Rhonda Chafin, executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee, which serves about 43,000 people each month.
How can we say no to families that need additional resources? she said. How can we say no to any program that s going to bring federal dollars to help families in need with children?
The Tennessee Justice Center, a public policy advocacy organization, is not giving up hope. It has encouraged hundreds of people to sendletters to the governor asking him to renew Summer EBTfor 2025, said Signe Anderson, the center s senior director of nutrition advocacy.
We don t think it s too late, Anderson said. We are doing everything that we can to urge the governor to change his mind.
But in an email this week, Lee s office told NBC News that the governor does not plan to extend the program.
The Summer EBT program was established in the pandemic-era to supplement existing food assistance programs in an extraordinary circumstance. The federal government has increasingly shifted the administrative cost burden to the states, prompting Tennessee not to renew our participation, as the program is mostly duplicative, press secretary Elizabeth Lane Johnson wrote, adding that the Summer Food Service Program served approximately 3.4 million free meals to children in Tennessee this year.
Advocates say cost is not a valid reason to deny grocery funds to children in need. For this summer, Tennessee paid more than $5.7 million in administrative costs from its state budget for Summer EBT, according to the state Department of Human Services. The program brought about $78 million in federal Summer EBT funds to struggling families in Tennessee, which FRAC estimated had up to a$139.1 million total economic impacton the state.
Those fighting against childhood hunger feel that aid and money should be flowing into Tennessee.
That s a missed opportunity for our families and our state as a whole, said Marissa Spady, senior manager at No Kid HungryTennessee, a campaign working to end childhood hunger. It would be a disappointment.
Rep. John Ray Clemmons, a Democrat from Nashville who has been advocating forfree meals for all childrenin Tennessee during the school year, called it heartless to not extend Summer EBT into 2025. He also said that it doesn t make fiscal sense.
Every dollar we use to address food insecurity for these children saves us tens of dollars on the back end, he said. If we expect those families to be able to get those resources, then we re just going to have to pull it out of state coffers, which doesn t make any sense when it s sitting there from the federal government.
While the USDA says it does not yet have a full list of states that will participate in Summer EBT next year, many states have already signed up including states like Alabama, which didnot participate in 2024 but opted infor 2025.
Miller is trying to figure out what she will do if Tennessee s governor doesn t extend Summer EBT.
There s a local food bank, but it s not exactly within walking distance. Nothing is within walking distance, she said. It s going to be difficult this summer.
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