(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
An Arkansas legislative panel took steps Wednesday to allow the state Department of Human Services to continue administering food assistance for children next summer.
Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer, or Summer EBT, provided $120 in food benefits this past summer for each Arkansas child eligible for the National School Lunch Program, a U.S. Department of Agriculture service that provides free or reduced-price meals for low-income children.
The Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council approved $2.9 million from the state’s restricted reserve fund to cover the state’s share of the jointly-funded program. The federal government will cover the remaining administrative cost, estimated to be about the same amount of money.
PEER also approved $8.9 million in spending authority for DHS as a separate agenda item. The department estimates that Summer EBT will require more than $50 million in spending authority, most of which will be funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to documents DHS provided lawmakers.
The subcommittee passed both measures with no debate or dissent, and the full Legislative Council will vote on both Friday.
Summer EBT served more than 260,000 children statewide this past summer, according to DHS.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced in January that Arkansas would opt into the newly available Summer EBT program this year. Several other Republican governors, including in neighboring Oklahoma, declined to participate.
Students who qualified for the program received $120 on a pre-loaded card to use for groceries, similar to what’s used for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Multiple children in one family can receive a card, though they each have to apply on their own basis.
Families did not receive their cards until July 10 this year due to the time it took DHS to launch the program, department spokesman Gavin Lesnick said in June.
The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance worked on outreach for the first year of the program and will continue to promote it, Patty Barker, the organization’s No Kid Hungry Arkansas campaign director, said in an interview.
Barker added that she was “very pleased” with Arkansas lawmakers for starting DHS down the path of administering the program again.
Despite opt-outs by GOP states, debut of kids’ summer food program seen as a success
“I know that they’ve already taken some steps in the new plan for summer 2025 to improve some of the process and data sharing that is utilized to identify those students who are automatically eligible for the program,” Barker said.
One upcoming change is that families will be able to apply for Summer EBT entirely online, which was not an option this year, she said.
Arkansas has the highest prevalence of food insecurity in the nation at nearly 19%, according to a September USDA report. Arkansas has also had a 22% child poverty rate for the past two years.
Sanders issued an executive order in October directing the heads of state agencies to examine whether their policies and procedures “may be contributing to or exacerbating food insecurity in Arkansas.”
On Wednesday, Solving Hunger Arkansas launched an awareness campaign regarding food insecurity and urging state leaders to expand students’ access to breakfast at school. The organization, which has worked alongside the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, wrote in a press release that its efforts aligned with Sanders’ executive order.