In participating states, low-income families will receive $40 each month for each eligible school-aged child, up to $120, to buy groceries, beginning in the summer of 2024. Shown is a sign at a grocery store noting the acceptance of electronic benefit transfer, or EBT, cards, on Dec. 4, 2019 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
I am appalled that South Carolina rejected increased grocery benefits for families while children are home during the summer.
As a South Carolina social worker with many children in my caseload some years ago, I learned a lot about this issue. Some children went to school only to eat. School lunch was the only meal they could rely on each day in the days before school breakfast.
Gov. Henry McMaster chose not to participate in the federal program that provides families up to $120 a month in summer grocery aid. He’s pointed to existing food benefit programs, including two that provide poor students free prepared meals in the summer.