May 8, 2024

5 Reasons Florida Policymakers Should Prioritize 2025 Summer EBT

In 2023, Congress established Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer, or Summer EBT, a food assistance program for children in families with low income. The program provides each eligible child a total of $120 (or $40 per month) in grocery assistance during the summer, when school is out, to supplement summer meal programs. In 2024, 36 states participated in Summer EBT, including Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Florida is not among the states administering a Summer EBT program this year. However, in a letter addressed to state leaders, 185 faith-based organizations, food pantries, anti-hunger organizations, child advocacy groups, and others indicated they are optimistic Florida policymakers will resolve any “fiscal and logistic barriers” to a Summer EBT progam in 2025.

Summer EBT would likely provide over 2 million hungry children in Florida with roughly $259 million in federal food assistance. To get federal funding needed to administer 2025 Summer EBT, Florida must submit the necessary paperwork to USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) by August 15, 2024[i]

Below, Florida Policy Institute outlines some of the reasons why Summer EBT should be a priority for Florida policymakers in 2025:

1. Summer EBT takes up the slack during the summer when children are not able to receive free meals at school.

Many children with low income have access to free lunch during the school year through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). However, during the summer when school is out, children no longer receive free meals through that program. Summer EBT ensures that families continue to have resources to keep these children from going hungry during the summer.

2. Summer EBT and other nutrition programs work as a team.

Summer EBT was specifically designed to work jointly with other food assistance programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Summer BreakSpot, to put food on the plates of children during the summer. Although SNAP and Summer BreakSpot are crucial programs for children in struggling families, they are not designed to meet all of a child’s food needs. In SNAP, families are expected to supplement their benefits by spending 30 percent of their income on groceries. Summer BreakSpot only reaches about 17  percent of eligible children due, in part, to the fact that not all families have transportation to participating locations, such as parks and libraries, especially those in rural areas.

Summer EBT was specifically designed to work jointly with other food assistance programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Summer BreakSpot, to put food on the plates of children during the summer.

3. Hunger affects 1 in 5 children in Florida.

Summer EBT is particularly important because hunger continues to impact 1 in 5 children in Florida, which experienced one of the highest spikes (6.4 percent) in grocery costs in the country last year. Parents are often forced to make hard choices between buying food for their children or paying for other necessities such as rent, cell phone service, and electric bills. As a result, food banks, church food pantries, and other non-profit emergency food providers are facing an extraordinary uptick in demand, which they are hard-pressed to meet.

Parents are often forced to make hard choices between buying food for their children or paying for other necessities such as rent, cell phone service, and electric bills.

4. The benefits to Florida providing Summer EBT far outweigh the costs.

By law, the federal government pays 100 percent of the cost of Summer EBT benefits as well as 50 percent of a state’s administrative expenses in running the program. The remaining 50 percent of administrative costs must be borne by the state. Things like cash or in-kind contributions count towards meeting the state’s portion of such expenses. While there is no publicly available estimate of what 50 percent of Florida’s share of the administrative costs would be, the State of New York, which has a caseload close in size to Florida’s, estimates that its administrative costs are $13 million for the program.

The 2025 Summer EBT benefits that participating families would spend at grocery stores, farmers markets, and farm stands would have an estimated economic impact to the state of as much as $466 million. Additionally, Summer EBT has been proven to reduce hunger and support healthier diets of children, in a past demonstration project funded by the USDA. Results included increased consumption of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables and decreased consumption of sugary beverages.

5. The deadline is fast approaching for policymakers to apply for federal funding needed to administer 2025 Summer EBT.

In addition to meeting the August 15, 2024, deadline for notifying FNS of its interim plans for operating a 2025 Summer EBT program, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) must submit a budget amendment to pay for Florida’s share of the administrative costs to run the program. DCF was a key agency in Florida’s implementation of P-EBT during the COVID-19 pandemic and is in a good position to leverage that experience in establishing Summer EBT.

 

Note

[i] Responding by the deadline does not obligate Florida to administer a 2025 Summer EBT program if policymakers decide not to administer one, and there is no penalty if the state decides later on not to participate.

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