Montana Food Bank Network is Working Alongside Important Public Programs to Reduce Hunger in Montana

According to Feeding America’s annual Map the Meal Gap study, the number of Americans facing hunger nationwide reached its highest level in 20 years. In Montana, 1 in 9 individuals are food insecure, including 1 in 6 children. Now Montana – along with 45 states, US territories, and tribal nations -- will launch a new permanent child hunger-relief program this year. Summer EBT is a federal program that the state will run, issuing food benefits on pre-loaded cards that families can use to purchase groceries while school is closed for the summer. The program is the result of years of advocacy by anti-hunger groups and research conducted through pilot programs beginning in 2011, which demonstrated that providing families with summer grocery benefits can reduce child hunger by 33 percent. “We focus a lot on the food, warehouse, and distribution components of our mission, but another critical part of this is the policy and advocacy work that we do. We work with state and federal government to build better support for the SNAP and commodity food programs, and to better ensure that all public assistance programs are also contributing to great food and economic security,” said MFBN President and CEO - Gayle Carlson. “We know that just putting food into the system isn’t going to cure food insecurity. We have to work on supporting policy and educating our federal and state government officials on the way these programs support our families.” Many Montana families rely on school meal programs to feed their children throughout the school year. Through this new Summer EBT program, families will receive $120 per eligible child. These benefits will work together with other existing nutrition assistance programs, such as summer meal sites, SNAP, and WIC, to help ensure kids have consistent access to critical nutrition when school is out. The benefits, which are 100% federally funded, will also serve as an economic stimulus, supporting local grocery stores and farmers markets across the state. Fund issuance dates are still to be determined, and, details will emerge in the coming months as state agencies finalize plans. USDA estimates that more than 60,000 Montana children will be eligible for Summer EBT. Students who are eligible for the program include children who: - Attend a school that participates in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and/or the School Breakfast Program (SBP), and are found eligible for free or reduced-price school meals, or whose families participate in SNAP, Medicaid, FDPIR, or other applicable means-tested programs. - Do not attend an NSLP/SBP participating school but whose families participate in SNAP, Medicaid, FDPIR, or other applicable means-tested programs. “We are grateful that the state of Montana has made this commitment to feeding children, making a positive impact for families in our state.” Samantha Dennison, MFBN’s Child Nutrition Manager.