Miami expands gift-card program so people can buy meds and pay utilities
Miami commissioners on Thursday unanimously approved expanding a COVID-19 relief program to provide gift cards for city residents to use on groceries, medicine and utility payments.
Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla voiced concerns after city administrators purchased thousands of Publix gift cards for each of the five commissioners to distribute through their offices under a program that is funded by federal CARES Act dollars disbursed by Miami-Dade County in November. The District 1 commissioner, who represents Miami’s Allapattah and Grapeland Heights neighborhoods, said his constituents tend to shop at other markets.
Other commissioners said they would welcome the chance to buy from grocers such as Sedano’s, Presidente, Milam’s and others. This week, commission offices started distributing gift cards from other markets.
Díaz de la Portilla proposed tweaking the program so the city could buy Visa or Mastercard cash cards that are coded to restrict purchases to groceries, medicine and utilities. He also advocated to allow commissioners to offer a range of amounts on the cards, from $100 to $350.
“A lot of older people in a lot of our districts really have more need for medicine than they do for food because they have food supplements and they have food stamps, and things of that nature,” the commissioner told his colleagues during Thursday’s meeting. “So it’s important that we make the program more inclusive.”
The gift-card program is only available to people who live within Miami city limits.
Commissioners also approved shifting another $2 million into the program, a much-needed refueling for an initiative that has drawn large turnouts to distribution events across the city. People have lined up overnight in some cases, huddling in cold weather, to have a chance at a limited number of grocery cards. It has become clear the need is greater than the number of cards that the city can provide.
“The need is very real,” Commissioner Ken Russell told the Miami Herald after a recent event. “I really see the appreciation.”
Díaz de la Portilla had proposed redirecting unspent money from a separate small business grant program to the gift cards,
but Commissioner Jeffrey Watson urged the commission to reserve some funds for proprietors who have pulled applications but haven’t submitted them yet. Díaz de la Portilla agreed to set aside $500,000 for applications that have yet to be processed.
The city quickly assembled the program in recent weeks after receiving $8.55 million in federal CARES Act dollars. Commissioners had initially directed about $5 million of that to smallbusiness grants for proprietors headquartered within Miami city limits. The urgency to spend the money comes from federal regulations that require local governments to return funds not spent by Dec. 31.
Thursday’s approval means all of Miami’s five commissioners will receive more gift cards, likely within the next three days.