The summer EBT food program for qualifying families with children is returning for Missourians in 2024, and will be a permanent program going forward, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced today.

The benefit will provide an extra $120 per child through a purchase card, the EBT — or Electronic Benefit Transfer card.

The program originally began as extra support for families during the Covid-19 pandemic, but now federal and state agencies agree that the summer EBT card program has proven to be a successful aid in helping children continue to receive healthy meals when schools are out.

The summer EBT benefit is provided automatically to families with children who qualified for free- or reduced-price meals in their schools. Missouri school districts provide the data on families who qualify and the state supplies the families with the cards, which act like debit cards, that will provide $40 dollars a month per child for three months of summer.

Families that already have the EBT cards as part of Missouri’s food stamps program will get the extra benefits automatically added to their cards.

Missouri is one of 35 states, including Kansas, that will provide the summer program in 2024, as the USDA anticipates that more than 21 million children will benefit nationwide. The Food Research and Action Center estimates that 429,000 children in Missouri qualify.

The summer EBT card program provides additional support to the overall USDA Summer Food Service Program, administered by the states, to fund hundreds of programs that serve free, nutritious meals and snacks to children and teens in low-income areas when school is not in session.

LINC and Morning Star have provided meals at the Morning Star Youth and Family Life Center in Kansas City as one of the many nutrition sites in the area.

Missouri is joining the permanent program for 2024 after experiencing some struggles in administering the extra summer aid in recent years. The benefits for the summer of 2022 did not reach families until June 2023, and Missouri opted out of the 2023 program while it worked on administrative issues.