Latest news with #FoodandNutritionService
CBS News
27-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Low-income Michigan families with school-age children to get Summer EBT food assistance
A program called Summer EBT that provides additional grocery funds during the summer on behalf of low-income school-age children is continuing this year in Michigan. Many of the families that are eligible should have already received a letter, and possibly also the funds deposited to their Michigan Bridge card accounts. This step was possible because the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service approved a plan submitted by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Michigan Department of Education. "Michigan children and their families shouldn't have to worry about going hungry over summer break," health services director Elizabeth Hertel said in her statement. The Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program, also called SUN Bucks, is aimed toward children age 6 to 18 who normally are eligible for free or reduced-prices meals during the school day through the National School Lunch Program or the School Breakfast Program. The concept started as a pilot program in some areas in 2011 and was part of the federal government's emergency response in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Michigan began participating in the current form of Summer EBT in 2024. Those who are in homes where the family were recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) or the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) have been automatically added to the 2025 Summer EBT. Medicaid recipients also are eligible if their income is at or below 185% of federal poverty level for their household size. For a Michigan family of three, the annual income cutoff on that chart is $47,767. Families who already have a Bridge card will see a one-time payment of $120 per eligible child, the standard benefit amount set by the USDA for the 2025 program year, added to their existing card. Those who don't already have a Bridge card will be sent a card in the mail. The funds can be used before the end-of-summer expiration date at any store or farmer's market that accepts EBT for payment, including some online retailers. Other state-supported programs aimed at feeding children during the summer include Meet Up and Eat Up / Summer Food Service and Meals to Go / Rural Non-Congregate Summer Food Service Program. Availability for those programs will vary by location.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
SNAP Benefits: How Long Will They Last?
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also formerly known as food stamps, is a federal program managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service. SNAP is the largest federal nutrition assistance program, but it's operated and administered at the state level, and potentially on the chopping block. Learn More: Read Next: Keep reading for a closer look at how long the average person can expect to receive these benefits. SNAP provides low-income households with monthly benefits that can be used to purchase eligible food items, and are especially crucial as food costs skyrocket. To receive SNAP benefits, you must apply in the state where you live. Eligibility requirements also vary by state, but most require recipients to fall below certain income and asset levels. To apply, contact your state's SNAP agency. You can also fill out an application online or print, mail or fax the SNAP application to your local SNAP office. Benefits are deposited into SNAP accounts, which are linked to EBT cards and can be used at most grocery stores and approved retailers. At checkout, swipe your card at the card reader like you would with a debit or credit card and enter your PIN. Depending on where you live, you may also be able to buy food online at select retailers using your EBT card. For You: Benefit periods for SNAP can range from one month to three years, according to the National Council on Aging (NCOA), depending on your case and your state's specific requirements. Once approved, the Food and Nutrition Service will send you a notice of how long you will receive SNAP benefits. SNAP benefits may also expire if you don't use your EBT card for nine months or longer. To avoid any interruptions in your benefits, the NCOA says you'll need to periodically recertify to prove your eligibility. Josephine Nesbit contributed to the reporting for this article. More From GOBankingRates Surprising Items People Are Stocking Up On Before Tariff Pains Hit: Is It Smart? How Far $750K Plus Social Security Goes in Retirement in Every US Region 5 Little-Known Ways to Make Summer Travel More Affordable 7 Things You'll Be Happy You Downsized in Retirement This article originally appeared on SNAP Benefits: How Long Will They Last? Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Woonsocket School District awarded $25K grant for kitchen upgrades
Apr. 3—WOONSOCKET, S.D. — In school cafeterias, a good meal can be the difference between a sluggish afternoon and a productive day. Thanks to a $25,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, Woonsocket School District is upgrading its kitchen with state-of-the-art equipment that will improve the quality, nutrition and efficiency of meals served to students. The funding, awarded through the National School Lunch Program Equipment Assistance grants, will allow the school to purchase two six-pan Unox combi ovens. These ovens will enhance meal preparation by ensuring food is cooked evenly, improving food safety and allowing for healthier cooking methods, such as steaming fresh vegetables. The National School Lunch Program Equipment Assistance grants are designed to provide funds for schools to purchase food service equipment. The equipment they purchase must be used to serve healthier meals, improve food safety and/or help to support the establishment, maintenance or expansion of the School Breakfast Program. "A well-rounded school meal program can be a vital contributor to a school's success," said George Seamon, interim director of the Department of Education's Child and Adult Nutrition Services. "These grants will help the Aberdeen and Woonsocket school districts make kitchen upgrades that ultimately benefit students and staff." The grant is part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, which allocated $10 million nationwide to support schools participating in the National School Lunch Program. Woonsocket is one of two South Dakota districts to receive funding, with Aberdeen School District awarded $8,832.44. Jessica Anderson, Woonsocket's Food Service Director, applied for the grant after seeing an increasing demand in the school's meal program. As student enrollment continues to grow, so has participation in school breakfasts and lunches. "With that increase, the need to prepare larger amounts of food has also grown," Anderson said. "Our current equipment just isn't able to handle that demand efficiently. If we fill our oven completely, the food doesn't cook evenly, which decreases the quality and safety of what we serve." The new combi ovens are designed to provide more precise cooking, ensuring that food is cooked thoroughly and at the right temperature. "A new combi oven will improve the quality of school meals through a more efficient cooking process," Anderson explained. "The sealed chamber, combined with better heat exchangers and airflow, will allow for faster and more even cooking." One of the biggest advantages of the new combi ovens is their ability to steam fresh vegetables while preserving their nutritional value. "This oven will give us the opportunity to prepare fresh vegetables using steam, which will help keep them tasty and appealing," Anderson said. "Children are said to 'eat with their eyes,' so by making vegetables look more attractive, we have the potential to increase participation in our lunch program." In addition to steaming, the combi oven will allow food service staff to poach, roast, bake, blanch, rethermalize and proof dough, greatly expanding menu options. "There are some recipes we'd love to try that require proofing pastry dough, but right now, we just don't have the equipment to do that," Anderson said. "This grant is giving us the tools to expand what we offer to students and provide high-quality meals that meet nutritional guidelines while tasting great." Woonsocket School District also participates in South Dakota's Farm to School program, which connects schools with local farmers and ranchers to provide fresh, locally sourced ingredients for student meals. Since 2023, donated beef has been processed for school lunches, while fresh fruits and vegetables add variety and nutrition. According to Anderson, the program supports local agriculture while ensuring high-quality meals for students. However, with the USDA cutting funding for Farm to School and Beef to School programs, the district's ability to continue next year remains uncertain. The new ovens will be installed in time for the 2025-2026 school year, bringing noticeable changes to the school's meal program. Anderson hopes the students and staff will appreciate the improved meal quality, particularly the fresher, more appealing steamed vegetables. Beyond improving meals, the grant also provides financial relief for the district. "Receiving these grant funds means we don't have to take money from an already tight budget to purchase this equipment," Anderson said. "With food costs continuing to rise, it becomes harder to find available funds for kitchen upgrades. This grant makes a huge difference for our program and, ultimately, for our students." The Woonsocket School District currently serves 275 students in grades PreK-12, and with these kitchen upgrades, the school hopes to continue enhancing the meal program to better serve its growing student population. "My main goal is to always put a high-quality product on the plate — something that meets guidelines, looks good, and tastes great," Anderson said. "I want all of our students to participate in our meal program, enjoy what we serve, and leave the cafeteria feeling full and ready to take on the rest of their day."
Miami Herald
02-04-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Walmart launches WIC online shopping in 2 states
Walmart has started offering online shopping to Women, Infants and Children Nutrition program participants in Massachusetts and Washington state, the states' health departments separately announced Tuesday. Massachusetts participants can, for the first time, buy WIC-approved foods online for in-store pickup or delivery from 48 Walmart stores across the state. The WIC program serves more than 125,000 residents in the state each year. In Washington, WIC participants can now place online orders from 67 Walmart stores. The state has approximately 205,000 WIC participants, according to the state's health department. The WIC pilot project in that state is set to last through the end of 2025, with the goal of expanding online ordering for WIC participants to other retailers after an evaluation period. In both states, WIC shoppers can use Walmart's app and website to place orders. "Walmart's multi-channel capabilities provide customers with a seamless shopping experience, whether through in-store, online, pickup or delivery to help increase access to healthy foods," Ryland Allen, vice president of baby merchandising at Walmart, said in the Washington announcement. WIC online ordering can address challenges like limited mobility, lack of transportation, language barriers, and time constraints facing WIC shoppers, Public Health Commissioner for Massachusetts Robbie Goldstein said in a statement. These launches stem from a pilot program by the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service to modernize the WIC program by allowing e-commerce orders, similar to the agency's pilot and subsequent rollout of SNAP online purchasing. Nine other states have also signed up for the WIC pilot. As part of the WIC pilot, Hy-Vee offers online shopping to WIC participants in Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska. Buche Foods in the Midwest is also participating in the pilot. Copyright 2025 Industry Dive. All rights reserved.
The Guardian
20-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump administration ‘villainizes' immigrant families with misleading directive on food aid
The Trump administration is now using popular anti-hunger programs, including food assistance and school lunch, as part of its attack against immigrants in the US – a move many say will prevent large numbers of families, especially children, from getting the food benefits they're eligible for. In a recent memo, agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins told senior staff at the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS): 'It is essential to use all available legal authority to end any incentives in FNS benefit programs that encourage illegal immigration.' In the accompanying press release, Rollins said, 'The days in which taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize illegal immigration are over.' While Rollins's directive does not change people's access, researchers, advocates and service providers say it's spreading misinformation about undocumented immigrants and could create a chilling effect among immigrant and mixed-status families – a trend seen during the first Trump administration. 'It's posturing to try to harm communities,' said Juan Carlos Gomez, an immigration and immigrant families senior policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy (Clasp), of the memo. Undocumented immigrants have been ineligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which is used by more than 42 million people, long before Trump's first term, and even immigrants who are authorized to be in the US have to wait five years before applying. 'That nugget of misinformation from the secretary', he said, is like a seed that will continue to grow, so that people start 'thinking undocumented immigrants are getting benefits they're not'. Other FNS programs, such as the National School Lunch Program, which provides low-cost or free lunches to around 30 million schoolchildren, or the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which supplements the diets for low-income families with free USDA foods distributed by food banks, don't have citizenship requirements like Snap. 'It really feels like immigrant families are being targeted to have food taken away from their plates in their households,' said California State University, San Bernadino professor Emily Loveland, who researches social welfare programs like Snap. Snap, which offers an average of about $6 per day per person, is already difficult to access and use. There are complicated eligibility rules and applicants must submit verification and complete an interview to receive food benefits. Both Democrats and Republicans have made cuts or changes to Snap in the past, and House Republicans have recently targeted the program in its budget reconciliation as a way to pay for an extension of the 2017 tax bill that benefits the very wealthy. '[The directive] is part of a broader story to villainize people who receive benefits,' said Lily Roberts, the managing director for inclusive growth at the Center for American Progress. 'It's ultimately part of a plan to get rid of benefits, whether through administrative action, illegal Doge work or the congressional reconciliation plan to cut Snap and Medicaid as a trade for tax cuts for the wealthy.' If the Trump administration wants to change people's access to Snap, it can only be done by changing the law, not by executive order or directive. Still, even the perceived threat of policy change is enough to produce chilling effects that directly impact the health of immigrant households in the US. Research has shown that in 2016, a proposed change to the public charge rule – which determines if people seeking immigration status would be likely to become dependent on government assistance – led to 'significant and large decreases' in immigrant families' participation in food and nutrition assistance programs such as Snap, the School Breakfast Program and the National School Lunch Program. 'I think we learned in the first Trump administration that rhetoric matters a lot for people's actual behavior,' said Chloe East, an economics professor at the University of Colorado Denver who studies safety net and social insurance programs and immigration policy. 'Even households with US citizen kids in them will be less likely to receive Snap because the parents are afraid it might impact their immigration status or it might lead to a deportation.' One-quarter of all US children have at least one immigrant parent, and around 4.4 million of them live with an undocumented parent. Based on Census Bureau data from 2016 through 2019, Migration Policy Institute researchers found that participation in Snap, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (Tanf) and Medicaid declined twice as fast among noncitizens as citizens during the first three years of the first Trump administration. During that time, Snap participation fell by 37%. In 2020, the controversial public charge revisions went into effect, making it harder for immigrants to obtain green cards or temporary visas if they participated in federal means-tested public benefit programs like Snap. The entire process sowed confusion and fear, so that even refugees and children born in the US – groups who aren't required to have a public charge assessment – went without needed food assistance because they worried about themselves or a family member being denied a green card. (The Trump administration's public charge rule was later struck down by multiple courts and withdrawn by the Biden administration.) Based on what happened with public charge in the past, Clasp's Gomez and other immigrant advocates expect to see a similar pattern of disenrollment in Snap and other nutrition programs because of the agriculture secretary's memo, which was published 25 February, along with other anti-immigrant policies from the administration. 'These executive orders and directives are confusing service providers who already have to deal with this long laundry list of who is eligible for what,' he said. 'That's the effect we're going to see across all immigrant communities, this confusion of what people are or aren't eligible for even though at the end of the day, an executive order or a secretary putting out a letter doesn't change the law.' East expected the new administration to come after immigration eligibility or immigrants' access to Snap via changes around work requirements or some kind of public charge rule again. 'What I did not expect was the current budget reconciliation proposals, which would really gut the program overall,' she said. 'They're using all the non-legislative tools they can to reduce access to Snap, but what will happen legislatively is very hard to predict.' Loveland thinks the USDA could try to adjust requirements for nutrition programs that don't require proof of citizenship, such as school food programs and TEFAP, which could ultimately mean that undocumented people may no longer be able to access them and would have to rely on already strained private charity food programs or risk food insecurity. If the National School Lunch Program was restricted, it could mean undocumented students would go without free or reduced price school meals. 'Though their plans to restrict any policy requirements are currently vague, my concern is that even an announcement of an intent to target these programs could have a chilling effect amongst immigrant families, like what happened with Snap and the 2019 public charge rule,' she said. 'They're pivoting their concerns to an ideological attack on immigrants, which isn't even based in fact or reality.'
