USDA is establishing the largest new nutrition assistance program in decades this year, an effort to ensure low-income children have enough to eat when they’re not in school during the summer.
But the Summer EBT program will be limited to 35 states, five U.S. territories and four tribes. Fifteen of the 27 states run by Republican governors have turned down $1.2 billion in federal aid that will be available to run the program.
Some of the nonparticipating states have cited ideological reasons for opting out, while others said they don’t have the staff, budget, or state legislative approval needed to implement the program, at least not this year. The Urban Institute says that money would have helped to feed between 7.8 million and 9.3 million eligible children over the summer.
Vince Hall, chief government relations officer for Feeding America, said the organization is very encouraged by the high rate of participation this year and thinks more states will participate next year. “But it doesn’t help to tell a hungry kid in a nonparticipating state that kids in neighboring states are receiving benefits,” Hall said. “When the school gates are locked, millions of youth are locked out of having access to nutritious meals.”
USDA estimates Summer EBT will provide $2.5 billion in grocery benefits this summer to nearly 21 million children — about 70% of all eligible kids. The Summer EBT program provides each child who qualifies for free and reduced-price meals an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card — like those used in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — with $40 per month, or a maximum of $120 through summer, to purchase groceries.
Vince Hall, Feeding AmericaSummer EBT is an outgrowth of P-EBT, a COVID-19 pandemic-era program that provided monetary replacement for free and reduced-price lunches when schools closed. In 2021, Congress extended and expanded that program through September 2023 under the American Rescue Plan Act. Then in December 2022, Congress approved Summer EBT through the Consolidated Appropriations Act.
Evidence suggests food insecurity among children in the United States worsens in summer, making Summer EBT a win for food-insecure families as well as anti-hunger advocates who have long pushed for stronger summer nutrition aid.
But the program is not without its difficulties.
Elaine Waxman, an Urban Institute senior fellow, confirmed that Summer EBT would be challenging for government employees in some states to implement, especially given the late notice. However, she added “there is a reluctance on the part of many, but not all, Republican administrations to pursue programs that offer additional benefits when the narrative now is to cut benefits.”
Ten of the states that will not participate in Summer EBT have rates of food insecurity higher than the national average of 11.2%, according to USA Today. Those states are Texas (15.5%), Mississippi (15.3%), Louisiana (15.2%), South Carolina (14.5%), Oklahoma (14.3%), Alabama (12.4%), Nebraska (12.1%), Florida (11.4%), Wyoming (11.4%), and Georgia (11.3%). The other states opting out, Alaska, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Vermont, have below-average rates of food insecurity.
When Iowa announced it would not participate, Gov. Kim Reynolds, said, “Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families. An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.”
In its own materials, USDA says, "Research shows that providing families with summer grocery benefits reduces child hunger and supports healthier diets."
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s office offered similar reasoning, furthering the objection to the way current feeding programs do not restrict what type of food can be purchased with EBT cards. According to state fact sheets published by the Food Research and Action Center, Kemp turned down nearly $139 million in federal aid, which would have helped feed more than 1.1 million low-income children in Georgia, while Reynolds rejected $28.8 million in aid that would have fed 240,000 young Iowans.
The administrations of Nebraska, Mississippi, and Wyoming offered partisan reasons for opting out of the program. While noting that Nebraska is already addressing summer childhood hunger through congregate feeding sites, Gov. Jim Pillen added, “I don’t believe in welfare.” Pillen left $18 million in federal aid on the table, which would have helped feed 150,000 low-income children in Nebraska this summer.
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Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder told the Cowboy State Daily, “I will not let the Biden administration weaponize summer school lunch programs to justify a new welfare program. Thanks, but no thanks. We will continue to combat childhood hunger the Wyoming way.” That includes not accepting more than $3.8 million in aid to feed 32,000 needy children in the Equality State.
Mississippi Today reported that first-term Gov. Tate Reeves’ office said the state would not participate because of the governor’s desire to reject “attempts to expand the welfare state.” Reeves turned down almost $39 million in federal aid, which would have benefited 324,000 kids in need.
However, like most of the nonparticipating states, the Mississippi Department of Education and the Mississippi Department of Human Services also said Mississippi lacks the resources needed to implement the program.
“It’s a very difficult program to implement,” Waxman said. “States have to marry the program data with the education system data and match it up with the way EBT is normally done.”
Likewise, in the late-1990s when EBT cards were introduced to replace actual food stamps in both SNAP and the Special Supplemental Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC) program, the transition took years, in part, because some states did not have the needed staff, funding or both to move forward right away. While all 50 states participated in P-EBT, some of them have had neither the incentive nor the capacity to build a long-standing program, Waxman said.
“People didn’t anticipate there would be a need to build permanent infrastructure” for a temporary summer feeding program, Waxman said. Instead, they used a “duct tape” approach to make the system work. In addition, the federal government paid all administrative costs for P-EBT, but each state will be responsible for 50% of the cost of running Summer EBT.
Two of the nation’s most populous states, Texas and Florida, also chose not to participate. Florida did so due to the “federal strings attached,” which is also the reason South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem gave for her state opting out of both P-EBT last summer and this year’s Summer EBT.
Florida Department of Children and Families Deputy Chief of Staff Mallory McManus said in a statement that Florida’s approach to feeding hungry children will continue to be successful “without any additional federal programs that inherently always come with some federal strings attached.”
Florida opted against receiving $259 million in potential benefits that would have fed nearly 2.2 million food-insecure children this summer. In Texas more than 3.75 million children would have been eligible for Summer EBT, resulting in $450 million in unclaimed benefits.
Elaine Waxman, Urban InstituteA statement from Texas Health and Human Services (HHS) noted “current resource constraints at the state agencies, the level of effort needed to implement a new program, and the need for new appropriations from the Legislature” makes it unfeasible for Texas to successfully launch Summer EBT in 2024. However, HHS said Texas agencies will continue to evaluate implementing a Summer EBT program in the future.
Eligible Alabama children will miss out on $65.4 million in federal aid, also due to lack of state funding. Gov. Kay Ivey’s office noted that because the federal government has cut funding to administer the program and issued guidance after Alabama’s legislative session ended, the state was unable to secure the funds needed to continue administering the benefits.
The other states that opted out cited either similar administrative or resource reasons for passing on the program in 2024 or did not give a reason for opting out, but some of them could join the program next year. In the interim final rule, USDA provided states with the option of obtaining planning money this year if needed to prepare for participation in 2025.
“There is an expectation that there will be a significant cohort of states that will launch the program in 2025,” Hall said.
Waxman added: “Some states are talking about that already.”
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