Summer 2024 will be the first that the United States Department of Agriculture, or USDA, will implement the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program, or Summer EBT, in which families will receive $40 per eligible child monthly to supplement the cost of food during summer break. However, Texas is one of 15 states that did not implement the program for 2024.
The gist
Thomas Vazquez, a press officer for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission—a government agency providing health services and programs—said that Texas could not successfully launch the program this year due to “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.”
Part of this problem includes a current strain on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, causing many eligible Texans to wait up to six months to receive benefits.
“People don't stop eating because they're not enrolled in SNAP,” said Celia Cole, CEO of nonprofit Feeding Texas. “They show up at a food bank.”
About the program
Summer EBT would supplement the already existing Summer Benefit Food Service program, which reimburses operators who serve food to children and teenagers at no cost in designated sites, according to the USDA.
“Historically in Texas, it's been a really challenging program to run, and it's reached really only about 10% of the kids who participate in the free or reduced-price lunch program during the school year,” Cole said. “The main reason for that low participation is just the challenge of kids getting to those sites in the summer months.”
Only 4.6% of students who participated in free or reduced lunch programs during the 2021-22 school year in Texas benefited from the summer food service, according to a 2023 report on summer nutrition by nonprofit Food Research and Action Center.
“[Summer EBT is] a particularly appealing option for Texas, because the traditional summer feeding program hasn't worked very well,” Cole said. “So if we had implemented it this summer, [Feeding Texas] estimated it would have served about 3.7 million children, and it could have brought an additional $430 million in food resources to families struggling with hunger in summer months. Those would all be dollars spent in the local grocery store, fueling the local economy.”
Eligibility for the program is identified by the HHSC and Texas Department of Agriculture based on if the child already receives SNAP benefits or if they participate in free or reduced lunch at school. Those who don’t receive SNAP would need to enroll for an EBT card and would be identified by the Texas Education Agency, or TEA.
“That's part of the challenge of implementing the program,” Cole said. “The other primary issue is just you've got three agencies needing to collaborate.”
Put in perspective
In Texas, about 20% of children are food insecure, meaning that access to food is uncertain, according to Feeding Texas.
For Travis County, the food insecurity rate among children is 16%. For Williamson County, the rate is 16%, and for Hays, 15%, according to data from nonprofit Every Texan.
“Good nutrition is critical to keeping kids nourished and making sure they're ready to go back to school ready to learn in the fall,” Cole said. “If you step back and look at the bigger picture of Texas—it’s overall health and well-being as a state and our economic competitiveness—making sure kids get fed is critical.”
The options
For Austin ISD, where about 37% of students are eligible for free lunch during the academic year according to the TEA, sites are set up across the district for eligible students to receive free meals during the summer months.
For Dripping Springs ISD, where 3.7% of students are eligible for free meals according to the TEA, local nonprofits such as Dripping Springs Helping Hands offer weekly supplement bags to students in need over the summer.
Beginning November 2022, Ancora Ministries partnered with district officials to provide meals to food-insecure students by sending students home on Fridays with backpacks filled with meals and snacks for the weekend. However, this is only provided during the school year.
"This is not ideal, of course, because these kids are already losing access to food during summer," said Trey Williams, founder and executive director of Ancora Ministries. "They eat free breakfast and lunch at school, so summer is already a more challenging time for them."
Other services in for Austin-area school districts include:
- Eanes and Lake Travis ISD families, where an average of 3% of students are eligible for free lunch, can locate summer meal sites at www.summerfood.org.
- For Pflugerville, Round Rock and Hutto ISD families, where an average of 31% of students are eligible for free lunch, summer meals can be found at select campuses.
- For Georgetown ISD families, where 34% of students are eligible for free lunch, summer meals can be found at specific campuses.
The HHSC will continue to work with other stakeholders in order to potentially implement the program in Texas, Vazquez said.
Feeding Texas will also continue advocating for the implementation next summer, in 2025.
“We think there's support for this program,” Cole said. “It's not political opposition, and financially, it'll be feasible. So I think it's just a matter of taking the time to do it, and the state simply didn't have the time to do it and figure it out.”
