Children “don’t have any control over their plight; they just know they’re hungry,” Victor Adamo told a Senate committee Wednesday.
The committee will be voting on the 2025 budget THIS week - Call/email and tell them: Alabama school children need a summer meal plan!!
The program called Summer EBT, or Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program, provides families $40 per month for each child receiving free and reduced-price school lunches. That would be about $120 to spend on groceries over the summer break. The program is intended to augment existing summer meal sites to help combat food insecurity in the summer months.
"The federal program has not required state funding since its launch following the Covid-19 pandemic, but now requires a state match—speakers said a $15 million appropriation from the state would net $80 million to $100 million in federal funds.
But Alabama is one of 14 states that did not submit a notice of intent to participate in the 2024 program.
“Because of that, over half a million Alabama children will miss meals this summer, and $80 million federal dollars were left on the table,” Wood said.
Comments