No Kid Hungry New York’s Rachel Sabella on the Omnibus Bill’s Role in Ending Child Hunger
“The child hunger provisions in this bill are a significant win for kids and families in New York and across the country,” says Sabella.
Contact: Johanna Elsemore at jelsemore@strength.org
12/19/22, WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the U.S. Senate unveiled the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, an omnibus bill that will fund the government through this Federal fiscal year and help millions of children have better access to healthy food during the summer months. The following is a statement from No Kid Hungry New York Director Rachel Sabella:
“This bill is a win for kids and families in New York and across our nation and we applaud Congress for prioritizing these commonsense solutions to end summer hunger. Currently, 6 out of 7 children who eat free or reduced-price meals at school are missing out on meals during the summer time. This legislation will make meaningful strides toward closing that gap and ensuring more children get the nutrition during the summer to return to the school in the fall healthy and ready to learn.
“The omnibus includes two important provisions that will modernize how we reach kids with the food they need during the summer months. It will:
- Establish a permanent nationwide Summer EBT program, making New York eligible for the first time. Beginning the summer of 2024 that will provide families with a $40 grocery benefit per child per month, indexed to inflation. Kids will be eligible for these benefits if they qualify for free or reduced-price school meals and can be automatically enrolled if they are directly certified in school meal programs.
- Create a nationwide non-congregate option for summer meals programs in rural areas without traditional congregate sites. Rather than mandating meals be consumed on-site during a certain time, meals could be taken home to be eaten later or delivered directly to children for up to ten days at a time. This option could also be used to serve children in rural communities who are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals but are not in an area that meets usual eligibility requirements for open-to-all sites.
“We know these are smart investments because we’ve already seen them work. The COVID-19 pandemic could have caused child hunger rates to skyrocket, but Congressional Leaders acted swiftly to implement temporary versions of these policies that not only forestalled the worst impacts of the crisis, but helped to dramatically reduce the number of kids living with hunger.
“This bill also includes a provision that will help families who’ve been robbed of SNAP benefits, known as “SNAP skimming,” providing them with much-needed relief through retroactive federal reimbursement of those stolen dollars. According to New York State, as of August, more than 2,200 New Yorkers had their EBT card skimmed and benefits stolen.
“In order to make these improvements, however, Congress will reduce investments in two temporary pandemic relief programs: Pandemic EBT and SNAP emergency allotments, both of which provide families with additional grocery benefits. While we are disappointed by these reductions and recognize the hardship they will cause families that are struggling to make ends meet, diverting these temporary funds to create permanent policies to close the summer meal gap is a trade-off worth taking.
“We look forward to working with the 118th Congress to continue improving how we reach kids whose families are facing hardship with the nutrition they need to grow and thrive.
“In the meantime, we thank Leader Schumer and Senator Gillibrand for their leadership on this legislation and urge Congress to move quickly on the omnibus before they break for the holidays. Kids are counting on them.”
About No Kid Hungry
No child should go hungry in America. But millions of kids in the United States live with hunger. No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization committed to ending hunger and poverty.
Share Our Strength
At Share Our Strength, we’re ending hunger and poverty – in the United States and abroad. Through proven, effective campaigns like No Kid Hungry and Cooking Matters, we connect people who care to ideas that work.