EBT

Missouri officials say that thieves installed inconspicuous gadgets at grocery store checkouts, many along Independence Avenue in Kansas City’s northeast, and skimmed the data and dollars right off the EBT cards.

Eligible low-income children will receive $120 in grocery benefits as part of a federal program that is administered by states. More than 400,000 kids are eligible.

The new summer EBT program will give an extra $120 to eligible school-age kids. Families in Missouri and Kansas probably won’t get the money until late summer or fall. But even if the money comes late, anti-hunger advocates say the extra dollars are an important step toward reducing growing food insecurity.

The program would provide $40 in food benefits for each month an eligible child is on summer break, loaded onto a card that can be used like a debit card to purchase groceries. Missouri's decision is nonbinding, and the state now has until Feb. 15 to submit a detailed plan to the federal government.

Roughly 429,000 Missouri children would be eligible to receive $51.5 million in food benefits next summer if the state chooses to participate in the federal program. Missouri has until January 1 to decide.

As some states wrap up this year’s summer food aid program, Missouri is still distributing last year’s benefits for children. The state also declined tens of millions in federal aid for low-income kids in part because officials lacked confidence they could disperse those benefits by the deadline.

The state said this week it will not participate in a federal program that would provide $120 in benefits to each eligible child, citing administrative hurdles. The decision sparked anger from Missouri parents, who say that officials "basically just robbed us."

Thousands of other Missouri families are waiting for benefits called summer Pandemic EBT, a federal program administered by states that provides a one-time deposit of $391 in grocery benefits for each eligible child. Compared to every other surrounding state, Missouri’s delays have been especially unusual.

Officials previously said the summer emergency food benefits program would be dispersed by the end of the year. Achieving that goal looks increasingly unlikely.

Missouri is one of just seven states that still hasn’t been approved by the federal government to administer summer emergency food benefits, called Pandemic EBT. Officials expect benefits to be dispersed before the end of the year.

During the pandemic, participation in the federal program for low-income women and children dropped more steeply in Missouri than in all but one other state, a new report found. One cause might be Missouri's burdensome administrative system, which requires EBT cards to be physically swiped when loading benefits.

A federal program called P-EBT could help cover hundreds of dollars in groceries for families with children who lost access to meals because they attended class online and not in person during the 2020-21 school year.