Summer EBT provides $120 per eligible child during summer months to replace school meals. Tennessee resident Stephanie Couch and her two daughters received the benefit in 2024 and used it to purchase fruits and vegetables. In 2024 Republican governors in Tennessee and Indiana opted out of the federal Summer EBT program, eliminating the benefit this summer. The loss forced Couch to reduce meat consumption, rely on ramen, skip meals, and delay or partially pay utility and rent bills. Couch works full time as a custodian and still lacks sufficient income to cover food and other expenses. Pandemic EBT originated in 2020 to deliver similar aid.
Last year, Stephanie Couch had some help getting through the summer months when her two daughters, ages 11 and 14, were out of school. Both girls receive free breakfast and lunch at school, but those meals disappear during the summer. In 2024, the Tennessee resident received Summer EBT - short for electronic benefit transfer - which loads $120 for each child onto a card that parents can use to buy groceries to fill that gap.
That left Couch with a lot less money. Some nights, meat was off the table; other times, dinner was just ramen. She's skipped both meals and bills to get through the summer, sometimes not paying her electricity bill in full or paying her rent late. Her girls have noticed that there's less food in the house. "When we don't get nothing to eat, they know," she said.
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