Policy & Practice | Summer 2024

Dec 2022

June 2023

Dec 2023

Jan 2024

Feb 2024

May 2024

States, territories, and Tribes began issuing Summer EBT benefits.

Final plan for operations and management (POM) for Summer EBT due to USDA

States, territories, and Tribes must declare their intent to participate in Summer EBT

USDA issued interim final rule for Summer EBT

USDA issued initial guidance for Summer EBT

Congress authorized Summer EBT

go. But with a shared priority of sup porting agencies in their work of helping children and families close the summer hunger gap through Summer EBT, APHSA and No Kid Hungry were primed for collaboration. Plan the Route With APHSA and No Kid Hungry sharing a destination, the next step was understanding the specific roles and responsibilities for each organi zation as we traveled the journey to successful Summer EBT implementa tion. As a membership organization for the people doing the important and intricate work of turning human services policy into practice, APHSA brought together state, territory, and Tribal agencies administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—the agencies leading Summer EBT administration in most places—to gain insight into who was planning to participate in Summer EBT and how they were thinking about implementation. But recognizing that Summer EBT was not strictly a SNAP program, APHSA partnered with No Kid Hungry, a national campaign that convenes and supports collabora tors with a shared mission of ending child hunger. No Kid Hungry brought together state, territory, and Tribal child nutrition agencies—the agencies partnering with SNAP agencies on Summer EBT in most places—to hear their thoughts about and plans for the program. Both APHSA and No Kid Hungry are committed to policy and research, and both organizations par ticipated in joint conversations with USDA and other national organizations to gain perspective on Summer EBT and bring them into our collective work. Go, Go, Go We knew where to go and how we planned to get there. All that was left for APHSA and No Kid Hungry was to get going. Here are some of the many

the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and Share Our Strength, the organization behind the No Kid Hungry campaign, joined forces to support states, territories, and Tribes as they worked to implement Summer EBT. To support agencies in their efforts, APHSA and No Kid Hungry had to answer the question: What do you do when you need to go fast and far? Confirm the Destination The first and most important step in collaborating on Summer EBT was to confirm that the success of Summer EBT meant the same thing to both organizations. The top priority was the easy one: provide states, territories, and Tribes with as many resources as we could to ensure agencies could provide children and families with Summer EBT benefits in a timely and accurate manner. But there were many priori ties for APHSA and No Kid Hungry to consider beyond this. For example: n How can we best support state/terri tory/ITO government agencies that were looking to build a permanent program before permanent rules and regulations were available and as this information was released? n What did children and families need from this new summer nutrition program? n How can we best use learnings from the Summer EBT demonstration pilots and Pandemic EBT to inform implementation of the permanent Summer EBT program? n How could communication to families about Summer EBT benefits mitigate confusion about how this program differs from Pandemic EBT? n How can we help elevate the reali ties and needs of state, territory, and

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, passed in December 2022, authorized the program, with the intention that states, territories, and Indian tribal orga nizations (ITOs) begin implementation in summer 2024 (see timeline, above). This summer, 45 states, territories, and Tribes administered Summer EBT. Nationwide, the program is pro jected to have reached more than 21 million children with more than $25 billion in benefits. By the numbers, Summer EBT has been incredibly successful. However, getting this new federal program up and running in 1.5 years was among the hardest of tasks. Mobilizing the political will, policies and regulations, people, systems, and processes to deliver tens of billions of dollars in benefits across states, territories, and Tribes in a very short time required a tremendous amount of coordinated effort at local, regional, and national levels. As two organizations deeply invested in supporting agencies to create pathways to implement and provide vital support to children and families,

Regis Whaley is a Senior Program Manager for Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry cam paign.

Chloe Eberhardt is a Senior Program Manager for Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry cam paign.

Tribal agencies to other national partners, USDA, and Congress?

Clearly, there was plenty for both organizations to consider and numerous directions our efforts could

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