Last December, Gov. Jim Pillen announced Nebraska will opt out of a new federal Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program for children.
This decision may disproportionately impact the state’s rural communities.
In exchange for $300,000 of the state’s money, the program would have given Nebraska $18 million from the federal budget to put toward providing summer EBT dollars to children on free and reduced lunch in school. The program gives families $120 per eligible child to spend on food at grocery stores, farmer’s markets or other authorized retailers when school is out for the summer.
“A lot of those kids are getting breakfast and lunch at school during the school year, and now they’re home for three months, or two and a half months,” said Dist. 24 Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward. “This would have kind of helped those families bridge that gap.”
One of the reasons Pillen gave for opting out was that the state has a lot of other food assistance programs, she said. For example, Belmont Elementary School in Lincoln is open for meals Mondays through Fridays during the summer. F Street Community Center in Lincoln does something similar.
However, many rural communities do not have the means to offer such services.
Hughes said there are no schools that offer summer meals in Seward County.
“That works in more urban populated areas, but when you start going anywhere rural, you don’t have that,” Hughes said. “It’s just not an option for those families. One size shoe doesn’t fit all.”
Crete Public Schools in Saline County will offer a month-long summer food program. Jodi Erickson, the director of Nutrition Services for CPS, said the district will offer breakfast and lunch through June alongside its summer school program. The program will be open to any school age child.
Dist. 32 Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth said if more schools in his area were to offer such programs, many rural students would have a difficult time accessing them. It would be a financial challenge to provide that service when only a couple students may use it.
“(Tri County) is out in the middle of a cornfield. You would have to drive your kid there, and, if you’re hurting for money already, who is going to drive their kid there to get a $1.50 breakfast?” he said.
Many new government financial assistance programs started during COVID-19 to help ease the financial struggles it presented. Hughes said another one of Pillen’s reasons for opting out of the program this year is that COVID is over.
She said that, while she agrees COVID is over, the country is still dealing with the impacts of it in the form of skyrocketing inflation.
“The program would have helped our local grocery stores because those families are going to go to those local spots and spend those EBT funds,” she said. “So, that would have been also a bonus for our communities.”
Last year, the USDA released a report that found food insecurity levels in Nebraska are higher than the national average and higher than those of its surrounding states, Sen. Jen Day of Omaha said.
“A very high percentage of the people going hungry in Nebraska are children, and part of that is because of access to food and food deserts in rural areas of the state,” she said.
The USDA reported that evaluations of a multi-year demonstration project showed that providing summer EBT reduced the number of kids with very low food security by about one-third and improved diet quality.
Day introduced a bill, LB 952, that would essentially force the state Department of Health and Services to opt into the program. The deadline to opt in was originally Jan. 1, but Day said the federal government has worked with Nebraska and several other states to allow some wiggle room.
On Jan. 25, Sen. Ray Aguilar made LB 952, which Day said has 16 co-sponsors, his priority bill. This will expedite getting it through the legislature.
“I’m hoping to get it through as quickly as we can because that’s really the only way we’re going to have enough time to make sure that it gets implemented correctly before June (when it goes into effect),” she said.
Brandt and Hughes are in support of the bill.
“It just makes a lot of sense,” Brandt said. “When you’re at the grocery store, you could pick up some food for the kids for the summer. It helps those families that need it and makes the dollars go further. Most importantly, it keeps people from being hungry.”
Some local food assistance options include Christ’s Cupboard at St. John in Seward, FoodNet at Seward United Methodist Church, the Milford Community Food Pantry at Milford United Methodist Church and Blue Valley Community Action Partnership in Crete.
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