Texas is passing up nearly $350 million in federal aid to help feed millions of low-income children during the summer months after a state agency said it lacked the time and resources to implement the program this year.

Summer EBT, a new U.S. Department of Agriculture program approved by Congress in 2022, will provide families in participating states with funds to buy groceries to fill the void when their children are not receiving meals at school. The benefits ā€” $40 per eligible child per month ā€” will be dispensed via ā€œelectronic benefit transferā€ cards, similar to a prepaid debit card, for three months.

The majority of states, as well as several territories and tribal nations, have signed onto the program. Texas is among a minority of 16 states not participating.

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USDA spokesperson Allan Rodriguez pushed back on Texas health officialsā€™ reasoning, saying the agency provided an ā€œunprecedented level of guidance and supportā€ to states in the months leading up to the rollout.

ā€œThe fact that 44 states, territories and tribes are moving forward in the programā€™s inaugural year shows that states have had the information they needed,ā€ Rodriguez said. ā€œThose that do not launch the program this summer will have future opportunities to opt-in, and we will keep working with every state and tribe to set them up for success in doing so.ā€

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    1 year ago

    Itā€™s also such a dehumanising concept. The ā€˜First Worldā€™ is the Anglosphere and Western Europe, the ā€˜Second Worldā€™ is the Sovietsphere, and the ā€˜Third Worldā€™ is just everything else. How the hell are Eritrea, India, the UAE and Brazil in any way related to one another or even similar? What a stupid way to group nations thatā€™s extremely outdated for the modern world.

    While I prefer the modern term ā€˜Global Southā€™ as encompassing developing nations, it still has its own issues - particularly as an Australian because weā€™re southern hemispheric but definitely donā€™t fall under the banner of ā€˜Global Southā€™.