NEW ORLEANS — Thursday was the deadline for the Governor to reverse his decision on accepting federal dollars for the summer EBT program. The Governor's office says his decision remains as is and the program won't be offered this year.
Shanelda Robertson says she has to look for alternatives this summer. The mother of three says last year she used the state's summer EBT program, a program which offers families $40 a month for food, per eligible child.
Robertson said, "I was very heartbroken when I heard of that... we are always at the bottom, and have to fight for our kids to get this when this is put on the table and available for our kids to nourish them."
She went on to say, "It has put stress on me and this is how my kids summer is going to look.. it's important now that I start looking for summer camps so they can get at least two of the nutrition meals that they need."
She says when her kids used EBT last year, she was able to feed them healthy and nutritious meals, saying, "I was definitely able to add more nutrition to the meal, I was able to expose them to better products than usual."
This summer that program isn't an option, Governor Jeff Landry announced he isn't accepting the $71 million from the Federal Government to fund it. Governor spokesperson Kate Kelly said accepting that money means the state has to pay millions to administer the program, and the state already offers various food programs.
The statement reads, "Summer EBT is a pandemic era related program that costs $7 million. The pandemic is over. Louisiana already administers robust social safety net programs including SNAP, TANF, as well as the Child Nutrition Programs—including the USDA Summer Food Service Program, the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program, the Seamless Summer Option, and WIC. This year, the Summer Food Service Program will offer meals-to-go. Under these numerous programs, every child will be able to receive the meals they need throughout the summer.”
Natori Green with the Broadmoor Food Pantry says families are struggling with rising food costs, saying, "In January alone we've served over 533 families and double that amount of individuals."
Green says the food pantry served more families last month than any month during the pandemic. "A lot of kids are out of school they may not even have the opportunity to go to a summer camp, some summer camps require families to provide the meals," she said.
Food pantries can only provide so much, she says without access to supermarket produce, children will be forced to go without.
We reached out to Republican state senator Beth Mizell, who's on the Children's and wellness committee, she said she's not in a position to comment. We also reached out to Louis Gurvich, Chairperson of the Republican party of Louisiana, we are yet to hear from him too.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.