Georgia families struggle to buy food during summer

The Atlanta-based social service organization Caring For Others provided food, clothes, toys, shoes, furniture, and other essentials to more than 129,000 households in 2023. (Submitted photo/Caring For Others)

A little extra money to buy groceries during a recent summer gave Augusta parent Tasha Marshall a rare chance to spice up the meals she cooked for her family by adding meat.

Thousands of low-income families in Georgia began receiving emergency pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer benefits that provided extra food assistance for days that schools were closed during the 2019-2020 school year. The program would continue to be available during the summer months when an extra $40 per child in monthly food assistance allowed parents to purchase groceries while school was on break.

Georgia is among 14 states that no longer provides the federal benefit that has now become a permanent program for the first time.

With the extra money, Marshall wasn’t forced to cook Hamburger Helper without ground beef and make meatless pasta sauce and noodles to feed her family.

Marshall’s resourcefulness once led her to stretch out three pork chops purchased by a friend by cutting them up into small pieces that would be added to rice and noodles for several meals.

As the mother of a 3-year-old boy and a 12-year-old daughter, Marshall has been relying on her husband and roommates to help her get by financially since moving to a neighboring community. The family currently makes just enough money to earn  above the 130% of the federal poverty line needed to get an EBT card.

She still gets government help from the Georgia program that helps moms buy fruits, vegetables, proteins, and other healthy foods.

She said it’s crucial Georgia officials make sure families who rely on free meals throughout the school year get an extra $80 per month during the summer.

“I really wish that they were in more touch with those of us that are living with food insecurity who are worrying about how we’re going to make rent and have to pay bills versus what food we can buy,” Marshall said. “Because they’re out of touch with that, they don’t understand the struggle.”

A petition has been organized by ParentsTogether Action to press public officials in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and several other states to enroll in the program so it’s available in the future. The family advocacy organization sent out advisories to its 3 million members across the country.

ParentsTogether’s program director Allison Johnson said families can use EBT to buy groceries at their convenience. Food insecurity has a big impact on local economies and the well-being of families, she said.

Georgia parents are advised to check with local school districts about free summer meal programs and with local food banks.

“August is the deadline for states to have to say that they’re going to opt in for next year so there is an opportunity to pressure governors in the states that won’t have it to change course so that these families will have access to it next year,”  Johnson said.

Georgia became one of the states that ceased to provide enhanced SNAP benefits following the 2023 summer after Republican Gov. Brian Kemp declined to apply for an extension.

The program allowed the parents and guardians of 1.1 million kids who qualify for free- or reduced-price lunches across the state to get an extra $290 million in food assistance. The final year of the Georgia program was opened up to SNAP-enrolled children five years and younger.

Kemp last year awarded $38 million to Georgia food banks to help offset some of the food insecurity gaps.

The federal program was first expanded in 2020 as part of the American Rescue Act, but there were bureaucratic hiccups along the way. Putting together a plan for the added pandemic while aid agencies also handled other assistance programs became a growing burden over the last year, leaving many state SNAP administrators overworked.

For Atlanta agency Caring For Others, losing the extra food allowance compounds the pain of high groceries prices. Donations are the only way Caring For Others can provide its weekly food distribution and other social services because it doesn’t receive government funding.

Eslene Richmond-Shockley, CEO, president and founder of Caring for Others, said there is a crisis in Georgia with numerous food deserts communities where there are no adequate grocery stores available..

“When we do a food distribution out there, you have people at three o’clock in the morning just trying to get a meal for their kids,” Richmond-Shockley said.

“So many people cannot afford to buy the basic necessities; bread, eggs, milk, all of those things that are needed, and then there is the high cost of electricity that they have to pay for them to cool down over the summer,” she said.

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