The Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) program was built off more than a decade of successful pilot programs, and it had a proven track record of reducing food insecurity and supporting healthy diets for children. Congress recently replaced P-EBT with a new Summer EBT program, but Alabama has not yet provided the required state match for the new program. We need legislators to support providing $15 million for the Summer EBT food program to help prevent children from going hungry over the summer next year.

Legislators are actively working on the fiscal year 2025 budgets. A Senate committee will vote on the Education Trust Fund budget on Wednesday, May 1, so now is an important time to elevate Summer EBT as a budget priority. Email your senator and let them know that Alabama’s children need Summer EBT!

Food insecurity among children in Alabama is disproportionately high, with one in four children living in food-insecure households. This is especially common in households of color, who often face food apartheid, the term for systemic and infrastructural limits to food access based on demographic factors such as race, class, ethnicity and gender.

Alabama needs to seize this opportunity to keep kids fed. We urge you to contact your senator today and ask them to fund Summer EBT for 2025.