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More than a third of the money that some low-income Colorado families received last summer to help feed their children went unspent, state data shows.
Summer EBT provides eligible families with $120 per child to buy groceries during the months when kids are not getting breakfast and lunch at school. The federal program grew out of a pandemic-era effort to keep students fed while schools were shuttered.
The under-spend matters because it means families are losing out on free food money during what advocates called “the hungriest time of year.” State officials made changes to this year’s Summer EBT rollout to encourage more families to use their benefits.
Once a family gets their money, they have 122 days — or about four months — to use it. The timeline will start running out in late September this year.
This summer is the third that Colorado has participated in Summer EBT. Last summer, the state gave out $57.6 million to more than 480,000 families of preschool through 12th grade students. But state data shows that 35% of those students never used their one-time $120 benefit, meaning that nearly $20.2 million went back to the federal government.
That money could have fed more than 168,000 additional children, according to the data.
Colorado had the lowest Summer EBT usage rate of the 20 states for which education policy consultant David Rubel gathered data. For instance, Missouri also distributed about $57 million in Summer EBT benefits last year. But that state only lost $3.5 million, according to Rubel.
“There’s so much bad stuff happening,” Rubel said, referencing cuts to other federal food assistance programs. “But here, you have something where the money was already allocated. Let’s use it. We don’t have to fight over it. It’s there.”
There are several reasons why families might not use their $120 per child, advocates said. The benefits are issued on a reusable card that’s separate from a family’s regular benefits card. If a family loses or throws away their Summer EBT card, they must request a new one.
Some families don’t know that Summer EBT exists, advocates said. Students are automatically eligible if their family receives public benefits such as SNAP, Medicaid, or Colorado Works, or if they qualify for free- or reduced-price school meals. Others must fill out an application.
But some automatically enrolled families “expressed hesitation or uncertainty about utilizing the benefit,” said John Rosa, a Colorado Department of Human Services spokesperson.
“Because it is such a new program … there is a general awareness-raising that needs to happen,” said Chloe Eberhardt, the associate director of benefits access for the nonprofit No Kid Hungry. “It’s easy for families to be confused about eligibility for the program.”
Operational and customer service challenges also contributed to the lower usage rate last year, Rosa said, as did outdated mailing addresses. Colorado was using addresses supplied by school districts from previous academic years, an issue the state remedied this year by mostly using current addresses from the state’s public benefits system, Rosa said.
School districts also play a role in telling families about Summer EBT, and advocacy organizations held a training call this year to provide district staff with up-to-date information, said Graciela Guillen, the applied policy and economic justice coordinator for Hunger Free Colorado.
But Jeffco Public Schools spokesperson Devra Ashby said that while the state’s second-largest district shares information about Summer EBT broadly, it doesn’t send targeted communications to families because eligibility is based on confidential student and household information.
“Protecting the privacy of our students and families is a priority,” she said.
The Colorado Department of Human Services does send targeted communications, and it updated them this year with clear “keep your card” guidance, Rosa said. To help boost usage, the department also rolled out two new online tools this summer.
The Summer EBT Enrollment Checker allows families to check if their child is eligible. The Summer EBT Portal lets families request a new card, change their address, or check the status of their application without having to make a phone call.
The online tools are available in English and Spanish.
“What we know is that summer is the hungriest time of year,” Eberhardt said. “Summer meals and Summer EBT help close that summer hunger gap.”
Clarification, Aug. 18: This story has been updated to clarify that families who lose their Summer EBT card can request a new one. They don’t have to reapply for one.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
