(CNN) 鈥� Nearly 5 million children in eight states could lose out on some extra funds for food unless their state officials sign up for a federal relief program by Friday.
The Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer program, known as P-EBT, is providing $120 over the summer to families whose children qualify for free or reduced-price meals or attend schools in low-income areas where all students receive free meals.
While the vast majority of states are participating in the program this summer, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Dakota and Texas have yet to join.
The funding is crucial for families who are having trouble affording groceries, housing, utilities and other necessities, which are all more expensive now, advocates say. Many of these parents depend on the free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch program during the school year, but only about 1 in 7 eligible kids receive meals over .
鈥淔or a lot of families that are struggling, the summer is of the year,鈥� said Lisa Davis, senior vice president at Share Our Strength鈥檚 No Kid Hungry campaign.
The was launched in the spring of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced schools to close. provided parents with money to buy groceries to make up for the meals their children were missing in school.
Congress several times, most recently in December as part of the . But this final extension cut the benefit to help offset the cost of a permanent summer EBT program that starts next year. Lawmakers also limited it to school-age children 鈥� younger kids are not eligible this summer because the has ended.
Last summer, families received $391 鈥� providing a total of $13.7 billion in benefits to 35 million kids, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Alaska and South Dakota were the only states not to participate, while Idaho only provided the funds to younger children in day care programs, said Kelsey Boone, a senior child nutrition policy analyst at the Food Research & Action Center.
Some states have said they don鈥檛 have the capacity to administer the summer program this year, according to Boone. However, she points out that each of the eight states participated in the summer P-EBT program either in 2021 or 2022, or both years.
Mississippi opted not to sign up for this summer鈥檚 program now that the Covid-19 public health emergency has ended, the state鈥檚 Department of Human Services said.
鈥淧andemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) was a supplemental benefit for households with students who temporarily lost access to free or reduced-price school meals due to pandemic-related school closures or distance learning,鈥� the agency said. 鈥淓xisting pre-pandemic summer feeding programs continue to operate across Mississippi school districts.鈥�
Alaska, meanwhile, decided not to apply for the summer benefits because of staffing constraints, said Gavin Northey, child nutrition program manager at the state鈥檚 Department of Education & Early Development.
Texas is not participating because the school meals and summer food programs have returned to pre-pandemic operations and are not affected by Covid-19 closures, said Tiffany Young, press officer for the state Health and Human Services Commission.
In Idaho, staffing shortages and competing commitments, such as , contributed to the state鈥檚 inability to offer P-EBT this summer, said Greg Stahl, spokesman for the state鈥檚 Department of Health and Welfare.
Agencies in the other four states did not return requests for comment.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has urged the states that have yet to sign up for the summer program to do so, noting in a tweet in June that 鈥渉unger doesn鈥檛 take a break when school is out for the summer.鈥�
鈥淚 encourage these governors to enroll their states and ensure millions of children can receive the nutritional benefits essential to our nation鈥檚 economic health and security,鈥� he .
Struggling families
In Texas, at least 3.7 million children would be eligible for the summer P-EBT program, said Mia Medina, senior program manager for No Kid Hungry Texas. Some 40% of parents of children in public school experienced food insecurity, including skipping meals or running out of food, in the past 12 months, according to a poll the nonprofit group commissioned earlier this year.
Last summer, about 3.5 million children in the Lone Star State received a total of more than $1.4 billion in benefits, according to Gov. Greg Abbott鈥檚 office.
Families in Montana are also having a tougher time affording food, said Lorianne Burhop, chief policy officer at the Montana Food Bank Network. Some local pantries are seeing record demand, and parents are visiting multiple times a month.
Some 32,000 children received a total of $12.5 million in summer P-EBT benefits last year, according to the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. But this year, officials said they were concerned about administering the program and about whether it was needed, according to Burhop.
鈥淥ur state is really missing a key opportunity to help Montana families keep food on the table,鈥� she said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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