The deadline for the summer EBT is getting closer
The registration deadline for EBT benefits in summer 2024 is August 31.
Summer EBT, also known as Sun Bucks, provides families with school-age children with a one-time grant of $120 for summer grocery shopping per eligible child. Grants are paid on an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card.
“This benefit is important because children who rely on free or reduced-price school meals lose this important source of nutrition when school is out. This creates great hardship for families who are struggling to make ends meet financially,” said Camerin Mattson, communications manager for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, in an Aug. 15 news release sent via email, part of a statewide awareness campaign to promote the new program.
“We don’t want the families of the more than one million children in Illinois who are eligible for this benefit to miss out,” she said.
To qualify for free or reduced-price meals, families must meet household income requirements. Currently, household income is 185% or less of the federal poverty level. Eligible income also depends on the number of people in the household.
According to the press release, some children were automatically enrolled because they participated in other programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Income Eligible Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, youth in foster care and victims of human trafficking.
Children who attended an Illinois school that participates in the National School Lunch Program, a voluntary program available to all public and private schools and brick-and-mortar child care centers that have a nonprofit program that provides lunch to all children that meets federal requirements, and who completed a free or reduced-price meal application or an alternative household income application for the 2023–24 school year, will also be automatically enrolled in Summer EBT.
For more information and a Summer EBT Screener to verify eligibility, visit wegotyouillinois.org/summer-ebt.
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