The Trump administration has requested a mountain of personal data from states regarding snap recipients, which will provide support to low-income families for food purchases. (Photo: Getty Images)

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletter ckbe.at/newsletters

Sign up Chalkbeat Tennessee Free Newsletter To keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County schools.

For the first time in five years, the majority of low-income students in Tennessee will not receive supplemental grocery funds this summer to bridge the months without school lunches.

This week, Tennessee will send a $120 payment to an estimated 25,000 low-income students in 15 counties to help pay for their summer grocery bills. Tennessee’s largest county has been excluded from the program, including Shelby and Davidson.

The program is a key rollback of Tennessee’s past summer food benefits initiatives, serving an estimated 700,000 students statewide every summer, with the help of state-federal partnerships.

The program, known as Summer EBT or Sambucks, ended this year when Gov. Bill Lee refused to continue the partnership and effectively rejected an estimated $75 million in federal funds that would provide summer grocery benefits.

Signe Anderson, senior director of nutrition advocacy at the Tennessee Judicial Center, called for a decision to “devastating” the federal EBT program for food-insensitive families.

“The decision to serve under 25,000 children in just 15 Tennessee’s counties leaves vulnerable families with fewer options during a time of rising hunger among Tennessee families,” Anderson said. “We’ve already begun contacting families this summer that we don’t have support.”

Many Tennessee school systems have other summer feeding programs to reach students when classes finish their sessions, but state advocates argue that the program is restrictive or inaccessible for families scheduling conflict and transportation issues.

For example, in Memphis At some point in the summer, around 100 different sites offer meals and snacks. However, the site offers a patchwork of availability, times varying from location to location, with some serving meals for several days.

Other providers are more flexible, Like dozens of YMCA locations across the state A meal pack to get a week’s worth of breakfast and lunch food. Still, supporters raise concerns about rural families who may live miles from their dining locations.

The decision to end the federal EBT program sparked a fierce pushback from Tennessee legislators and children’s advocates who earlier this year claimed the federal dollar was an important tool to address food insecurity.

In questions from lawmakers regarding the abandonment of federal funds, Lee’s office announced a new state-funded program to provide payments to a limited number of counties, which stated that the administration was chosen due to a lack of summer feeding partners like the YMCA.

Tennessee Human Services Director Clarence Carter calls the scaled Back State program a “financially responsible” approach. Lee’s administration cited the percentage of state administrative fees as one reason to halt the state-federal partnership, which was first launched under the Biden administration in 2020.

However, while Tennessee currently costs $3 million to distribute benefits to 15 counties, Tennessee has been responsible for approximately $5 million in administrative expenses to serve 95 counties.

“This is cruel for families in Tennessee, and if the state could provide less money to 700,000 children if they implement the federal S-EBT option, it would be financially irresponsible,” Anderson said.

Melissa Brown is the director of Chalkbeat Tennessee. Please contact melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Chalk Beat This is a non-profit news site that covers educational changes in public schools.