NEW ORLEANS – The Landry administration’s decision not to participate in the 2024 federally funded Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) program may drive more Louisiana families to seek assistance from area nonprofits.
A spokesperson for Second Harvest Food Bank said families with children who qualify for free breakfast and lunch during the school year will find themselves turning to local food pantries and summer feeding programs to feed their children.
“Every day, Louisiana families are forced to make difficult decisions to effectively stretch their income in an economy where elevated food prices and cost of goods continue to linger,” said Natalie Jayroe, president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank. “Losing even $120 in an already tight food budget can be devastating. Our children will go hungry this summer.”
Second Harvest figures show that 234,000 Louisiana children face food insecurity. About half of them live in the food bank’s 23-parish service area, stretching from the Mississippi border to the Texas state line.
Last summer, eligible families across the state received $66.5 million from the federally funded Pandemic-EBT program. The Summer EBT program was to be a permanent replacement for the P-EBT program to address the ongoing need of low-income families facing food insecurity.
According to Jan Moller of the Louisiana Budget Project, by declining to participate in the Summer EBT program, the state is turning down an estimated $71 million. LBP estimates the state’s cost to preserve the Summer EBT Program would have been 50% of the program’s administrative costs (about $10 million).
“The cost of losing the Summer EBT benefit is far greater to Louisiana families than the administrative costs of the program to the state,” added Jayroe. “We cannot sacrifice the nutritional needs of our children who need to eat for their basic growth and development, and to prevent a variety of health conditions. The well-being of our children is at stake. I am especially worried about those children in rural areas that our programs will not reach.”
Second Harvest said it is gearing up for its upcoming summer programs that directly serve low-income children enrolled in qualifying USDA summer food service programs. Second Harvest said its summer initiatives provided 103,268 hot breakfast and lunch meals as well as 26,335 snacks to 2,667 children at 54 locations last year.
This year, Second Harvest hopes to expand the number of summer feeding sites to 75 serving 3,550 children.
“Everyone has a role to play in the fight against hunger,” said Jayroe. “Volunteers are needed throughout the summer, and all year long, to plate and package nutritious meals and snacks and sort and box non-perishable food donations. It is also imperative that we educate lawmakers about hunger in our state and community and be fierce advocates for our neighbors who are most vulnerable, children and seniors. In addition to volunteers, Second Harvest will need financial support from the community to make up for this loss of Federal support.
For more than 40 years, Second Harvest Food Bank has provided food access, advocacy, education and disaster response. Second Harvest provides food to more than 700 partners and programs across 23 parishes.
