Some states will give assistance for up to $120 this summer of 2023 so that households with children can buy food in these months that they are out of school for vacations.
What is this help: This is the P-EBT program initially approved during the pandemic and has since been expanded. Starting next year it will become a permanent program and here we explain how the help will be this summer.
- With this program managed by the Department of Agriculture (USDA in English), households with eligible school-going children receive benefits for the purchase of food on an EBT card.
- This summer 2023, children who in the 2022-2023 school year attended a school that participates in the program are eligible. National School Lunch Program. This school lunch program was approved only in a few states. Below we specify what they are.
- These are the states that have been approved by the USDA for the school lunch program: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana , Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
- Children who received free or reduced-price meals in the 2022-2023 school year are also eligible for help buying meals.
This summer there is a very important change for some homes: This aid will no longer be given to children under the age of 6 in households that receive assistance from food stamps or the SNAP program, as it was given in previous years due to the pandemic. Help was limited in these homes because the federal government lifted the emergency measure due to the covid-19 crisis.
How much is the food aid: For this summer, Congress approved the following amounts in accordance with USDA guidance.
- In the continental US: $120
- Non-Alaska: $188
- In Hawaii, Guam, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Mariana Islands: $139
There is another program that gives food aid in summer: There are places across the country that USDA funds to offer free meals to children and youth ages 18 and under. The USDA has this map with information from at least 40 states.
And there is also the line Hunger Free America: Families who need food for their children can call 1-877-842-6273 and speak to a person in Spanish. It is available Monday through Friday between 7:00 am and 10:00 pm (Eastern Time).
Why this help matters: Because in the United States nearly 12 million people sometimes or almost always do not have enough food on their tables, according to a study that the Census Bureau conducted in households with children from April 26 to May 8. Of those 12 million people, nearly 4 million are from Hispanic-origin households.
2023-06-11 15:28:00
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