A new federal program has been rolled out to help feed school children during the summer months. The state of Texas could have received around $350 million from the program, which would provide families with $120 per month per eligible child.
The state of Texas is not going to participate in the program — along with 13 other states — which will now place the burden on existing charities.
On this week's Weekend Insight, TPR's Jerry Clayton talks to San Antonio Food Bank President and CEO Eric Cooper about the decision by Texas officials to opt out of the summer program.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Clayton: Thanks for being here.
Cooper: Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for your interest in this story. You know, I'm oftentimes asked, when's the busiest time of the year for the food bank? And it is the summer because of kids that are without their national school lunch and breakfast program.
The state runs a program called the Summer Food Service Program, which allows schools and nonprofits to get meals to kids. But congregating them creates a challenge, and not that many kids are actually getting meals in the summer food service program.
Congress authorized this Summer EBT as a way to eliminate the logistics barriers, the convening of kids, to get low income moms the financial resource to be able to buy their kids food at home. And we couldn't be any more excited.
Learning that Congress had created this national initiative similar to what they did in the pandemic, with a PEBT program, this Summer EBT, we think really serves rural Texas well. It serves families well.
But learning that Texas decided not to do it for summer 2024 because of capacity constraints is shifting the capacity now to us, because families will be coming to the food bank to meet their food needs, not having access to this incredible resource.
Clayton: Have you been able to get a handle on why the state of Texas actually rejected the program?
Cooper: We know right now that the HHSC is struggling to keep up with SNAP applications and that there are labor shortages, technology challenges, training issues. And so it's that perfect storm of, “boy, lots going on right now. Can we take on a new program?”
It is new. It's coming down from the feds and Americans need it, Texans need it. And so figuring out how to deploy it — other states are figuring out those opportunities and deploying summer EBT in 2024. I just believe that Texas ought to have the capacity to do it. I know we've got challenges, but if anything can be done, it will sure help the families.
Clayton: Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds suggested that childhood obesity was a reason that they shouldn't expand their grocery benefits for children. How do you react to a statement like that?
Cooper: It's a symptom of just not being aware. Obviously, there's nothing better that our country could do than nourish kids. The national school lunch program was developed to deliver people to the military that were better nourished whose bodies grew healthy and strong. If a country is malnourished, you're going to have symptoms like obesity. Obesity is a nutrition issue and not having access to the right foods and the right amount at the right time is what the Summer EBT program is trying to fix.
