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More than a third of the money that some low-income Colorado families received last summer to help feed their children went unspent, state data shows.<\/p>\n
Summer EBT provides eligible families with $120 per child to buy groceries during the months when kids are not getting breakfast and lunch at school. The federal program grew out of a pandemic-era effort to keep students fed while schools were shuttered.<\/p>\n
The under-spend matters because it means families are losing out on free food money during what advocates called \u201cthe hungriest time of year.\u201d State officials made changes to this year\u2019s Summer EBT rollout to encourage more families to use their benefits.<\/p>\n
Once a family gets their money, they have 122 days \u2014 or about four months \u2014 to use it. The timeline will start running out in late September this year.<\/p>\n
We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n
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This summer is the third that Colorado has participated in Summer EBT. Last summer, the state gave out $57.6 million to more than 480,000 families of preschool through 12th grade students. But state data shows that 35% of those students never used their one-time $120 benefit, meaning that nearly $20.2 million went back to the federal government.<\/p>\n
That money could have fed more than 168,000 additional children, according to the data.<\/p>\n
Colorado had the lowest Summer EBT usage rate of the 20 states for which education policy consultant David Rubel gathered data. For instance, Missouri also distributed about $57 million in Summer EBT benefits last year. But that state only lost $3.5 million, according to Rubel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so much bad stuff happening,\u201d Rubel said, referencing cuts to other federal food assistance programs. \u201cBut here, you have something where the money was already allocated. Let\u2019s use it. We don\u2019t have to fight over it. It\u2019s there.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are several reasons why families might not use their $120 per child, advocates said. The benefits are issued on a reusable card that\u2019s separate from a family\u2019s regular benefits card. If a family loses or throws away their Summer EBT card, they must request a new one.<\/p>\n
Some families don\u2019t know that Summer EBT exists, advocates said. Students are automatically eligible if their family receives public benefits such as SNAP, Medicaid, or Colorado Works, or if they qualify for free- or reduced-price school meals. Others must fill out an application. <\/p>\n
But some automatically enrolled families \u201cexpressed hesitation or uncertainty about utilizing the benefit,\u201d said John Rosa, a Colorado Department of Human Services spokesperson. <\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it is such a new program \u2026 there is a general awareness-raising that needs to happen,\u201d said Chloe Eberhardt, the associate director of benefits access for the nonprofit No Kid Hungry. \u201cIt\u2019s easy for families to be confused about eligibility for the program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Operational and customer service challenges also contributed to the lower usage rate last year, Rosa said, as did outdated mailing addresses. Colorado was using addresses supplied by school districts from previous academic years, an issue the state remedied this year by mostly using current addresses from the state\u2019s public benefits system, Rosa said.<\/p>\n
School districts also play a role in telling families about Summer EBT, and advocacy organizations held a training call this year to provide district staff with up-to-date information, said Graciela Guillen, the applied policy and economic justice coordinator for Hunger Free Colorado.<\/p>\n
But Jeffco Public Schools spokesperson Devra Ashby said that while the state\u2019s second-largest district shares information about Summer EBT broadly, it doesn\u2019t send targeted communications to families because eligibility is based on confidential student and household information.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtecting the privacy of our students and families is a priority,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Colorado Department of Human Services does send targeted communications, and it updated them this year with clear \u201ckeep your card\u201d guidance, Rosa said. To help boost usage, the department also rolled out two new online tools this summer. <\/p>\n
The Summer EBT Enrollment Checker allows families to check if their child is eligible. The Summer EBT Portal lets families request a new card, change their address, or check the status of their application without having to make a phone call.<\/p>\n
The online tools are available in English and Spanish.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we know is that summer is the hungriest time of year,\u201d Eberhardt said. \u201cSummer meals and Summer EBT help close that summer hunger gap.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clarification, Aug. 18: This story has been updated to clarify that families who lose their Summer EBT card can request a new one. They don\u2019t have to reapply for one.<\/p>\n
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado\u2019s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox. More than a third of the money that some low-income Colorado families received last summer to help feed their children went unspent, state data shows. Summer EBT provides eligible<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[37191,2898,3819,3817,3820,3818,16962,71,531,1825,2714,6927,8005],"class_list":["post-48624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado","tag-chalkbeat","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-dining","tag-colorado-food","tag-colorado-grocery-stores","tag-colorado-restaurants","tag-ebt-card","tag-food","tag-fruit","tag-getty-editorial","tag-groceries","tag-organic-food","tag-vegetables"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117414596700408057","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}