Clarissa Clark with the North Texas Food Bank says if lawmakers don’t meet the March first deadline, they are essentially leaving federal dollars on the table, "It's $450 million in federal taxpayer money that comes back to the state. It helps with those who are food insecure, and it also puts money back into our economy, so there’s a lot of wins to it."
To qualify for Summer EBT, families must meet the income requirements for the National School Lunch Program or be certified for school meals through SNAP or Medicaid.
The North Texas Food Bank is one of 80 organizations in the Texas Food Policy Roundtable calling for the implementation of the program. The NTFB could receive up to 60 million dollars in benefits and help nearly 500,000 children in 12 north Texas counties. Clark says child hunger increases during the summer because students don’t have access to school meals, "The initiative provides low-income families, with school-aged children, with $120 in food benefits on, like, a debit card. And they can use that to buy food. If they don’t get the summer meals demand at our partner pantries goes up. "
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission needs direction from the legislature to move forward with the program for Summer 2025.