CT owes families millions in summer federal food aid. State mum on why they won’t get it until August.

Families in need in Connecticut were set to receive millions of dollars in federal food assistance this week, but a day before the funds were scheduled to arrive, the State Department of Social Services announced that disbursements for the new summer program will be delayed until August.

DSS told families that eligible households would receive an extra $120 per child on Sunday, June 23, through the Summer Electronic Benefits for Children Program — a federal grocery benefit that launched this year to address summertime food insecurity among students who receive free and reduced-price meals during the school year.

As many as 273,000 children in the state qualify for the program, according to DSS. But on Saturday, June 22, the department announced in a Facebook post that “unexpected delays” pushed back the start of the program. With no further explanation, DSS said families will not receive the $120 deposits until early August.

For many, the announcement came too late.

On Facebook, mothers expressed that they had already bought groceries and prepared their household budgets around the expectation that the $120 would arrive on Sunday. Others question “what good” the money would do in August when so many families depended on the funds to make it through the summer.

“I needed food,” one mother commented. “I have nothing.”

On Monday, DSS did not respond to requests to disclose the cause of the delay.

In a statement emailed to the Courant, DSS Deputy Communications Director Christine Stuart said Connecticut is in possession of the federal money required for the program. Stuart said the state received its portion of the Summer EBT allocation in May after the USDA approved the state’s initial plan for operations and management of the program in late April.

In another email, Stuart said “DSS is preparing to begin” the “brand new program” this summer.

Stuart said Summer EBT “does not impact any other food assistance programs” and that “families will begin receiving additional summer assistance benefits above any other food assistance programs that they are already receiving” once the program launches.

Stuart did not elaborate on the delay or the factors behind it.

Molly Stadnicki, the program manager for End Hunger Connecticut!, said people in the state deserve an explanation “as to why families aren’t getting the benefits that they’re entitled to.”

“The timing of this is, it couldn’t be worse,” Stadnicki said. “People have been planning to get this money.”

Stadnicki explained that the summer creates particular challenges for families that struggle with nutrition and food insecurity. Stadnicki said that many children who participate in free and reduced-price school breakfast and lunch “get their healthiest, most nutritious meal when they’re at school.”

“That completely goes away in the summer,” Stadnicki said.

Stadnicki said hundreds of locations in the state offer free meals to children ages 18 and under each summer. Stadnicki described how the no-questions-asked program offers critical support to thousands of families, but she said it can be difficult to come by a site that serves three meals a day and that transportation challenges can create barriers to access.

While $120 in Summer EBT may not be enough to feed a child for three months of summer, Stadnicki said advocates hoped the program, coupled with the free Connecticut Summer Meals Program, would help keep kids healthy and fed until school starts.

“Summer EBT plus summer meals was really going to help a lot of low-income families be able to afford food and also take advantage of the summer meal sites,” Stadnicki said. ”Now that Summer EBT is going to be pushed, the Summer Meals Program is more important than ever.”

Kimberly McDaniel of Ansonia said she was counting on the $120 to help feed her 12-year-old son.

As a single working mom, McDaniel said she receives $53 a month in food assistance — a benefit that does not come close to covering the more than $300 she spends each month on groceries.

“I have never struggled as much as I am right now because of inflation and everything (that) keeps creeping up. It’s a terrible feeling to have and I work,” McDaniel said. “Some days I want to scream and yell but I can’t, I have to be strong for my son and take care of what I have to (do) for myself and him.”

McDaniel said the Summer EBT delay felt like another hit.

“I am a single mom that needs the help, and I can’t get the help from the state, they just keep taking it away from me,” McDaniel said

“The summer will be over by the time we get (the Summer EBT),” McDaniel said. “This (delay) is beyond crazy and something needs to be done about it.”