Millions in childhood hunger aid unclaimed
Florida has “made no effort” to apply for $820 million in pandemic SNAP benefits intended to help more than 2 million low-income children have enough to eat during the summer, making it one of only a handful of states ignoring the program, advocates said Tuesday.
The funds, made available under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, would cover up to 90 days of summer break between school years — a one-time bonus of $375 in benefits per child under SNAP, the Supplemental Food Assistance Program, or food stamps. The benefit can be awarded retroactively.
The Florida Department of Children and Families, which administers SNAP within the state, has not yet applied for the program, as have at least 38 other states, Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and American Samoa.
Executives with the nonpartisan Florida Policy Institute said they and several prominent anti-hunger organizations have tried without success to get an explanation from DCF, which also did not respond to a media request to comment on the situation.
“Given the enormous impact that COVID-19 has had on our state’s most vulnerable families, it doesn’t make sense just to leave this money on the table,” said attorney Cindy Huddleston, a senior policy analyst with the Florida Policy Institute. “We don’t want that window to close.”
The USDA memo on the program does not list an application deadline, although it does say the program is intended to get benefits to eligible families as quickly as possible. The benefits can only be used to buy food and are awarded through what looks like a debit card that recipients use at stores, farmers markets and selected online grocers.
Floridians already have been cut off from extra SNAP allotments provided to states that still have COVID-19 public health emergency declarations. Gov. Ron DeSantis opted not to renew the emergency declaration for Florida after Aug. 1. That amounted to denying an extra $73 a month to the poorest households.
Huddleston said there’s no disadvantage to applying for the benefits. The federal government has created a template to streamline the application process.
“We’re very concerned because this is $820 million to help feed children, and it’s also money that would be spent in local grocery stores, which could really be a boon to the community,” Huddleston said.
Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Texas are among the 38 states that already have applied for the summer benefits and had their plans approved.
Nationally, the extra benefits are available to all children who were eligible to receive free or reducedprice meals during the school year. Children under age 6 whose families were already enrolled in SNAP for the summer are also eligible.
For Central Florida, where tourism industry workers have been hard hit by the pandemic, the benefits would be especially critical, advocates said.
“We know that about one out of every five children here is in danger of going to be hungry tonight,” said Kelly Quintero, director of advocacy and government relations for Second Harvest Food Bank, the region’s largest supplier of donated food. “We know that families are still struggling from the repercussions of the pandemic. And we know how much this program could help. So the question is: Why wouldn’t we use every resource available to help these children?”
While many Floridians were buoyed by $300 weekly federal unemployment benefits earlier in the pandemic, the state opted to prematurely end those payments in late June. DeSantis said the move would boost hiring efforts by local businesses, which had complained of labor shortages.
But shortly afterward, Quintero said, Second Harvest began witnessing a steady rise in the number of people searching its online portal for locations of emergency food pantries.
“For the week of Aug. 15, we saw an average of 234 searches a day,” she said. “The previous week it was 197 daily searches. And every week since July 11 we’ve seen an increase.”
Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced it will permanently increase SNAP monthly benefits for all recipients starting Oct. 1. At that point, benefits will be roughly 27 percent higher than they were before the pandemic — an average of about $1.20 per person per day — as the cost of groceries continues to rise.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” Huddleston said. “But it’s a very modest increase. It only comes down to about 40 cents a meal per person. So it’s not an excuse to not run a summer [food stamp] program.”