AUSTIN, Texas — The State of Texas will not participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) new summer electronic benefits transfer program (EBT), according to a report from KUT.
The new program is aimed at helping states, territories and some tribal nations address the food insecurity that some children face when they're on summer break. Starting this summer, participating states will be able to provide low-income families with $40 a month per school-aged child to help cover the cost of groceries. The USDA estimates more than 29 million children will benefit from the program.
However, KUT reports that Texas will not participate in the Summer EBT. State officials said the timing of the rollout of the new program made it difficult to implement this summer.
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Lena Wilson, the assistant commissioner for food and nutrition at the Texas Department of Agriculture, told KUT that the program was released after the state's regular legislative session had already ended. That presented a challenge, KUT reports, because the USDA requires states participating in the Summer EBT to cover 50% of the administrative costs for operating the program.
Wilson said agencies hadn't requested that funding, though the governor and the Legislative Budget Board do have the ability to transfer funds between programs within an agency or between different agencies.
Wilson said, ultimately, the three Texas agencies that would have a role in implementing the program – the Department of Agriculture, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHS) – determined it wouldn't be possible to participate this year. KUT reports that the Department of Agriculture would be responsible for working with the TEA to identify students who might be eligible for the program, and the majority of the work to run the program would fall on the HHS.
To learn more, read KUT's full report.