State expanding food aid for children

Thousands of children face food insecurity during the ongoing pandemic. That’s exacerbated by the closures of schools, which many children in poverty rely on to get full meals each weekday.

In an effort to combat these problems, the state’s Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is expanding food assistance benefits.

From March 15 through the end of June, MDHHS will automatically send out Pandemic-EBT cards to families where the children don’t have full-time, in-person schooling. More than 800,000 children could benefit.

The program is targeted specifically toward students who qualify for free or reduced price lunch in public schools. According to Kids Count, that could include more than 17,000 children in Kalamazoo County.

Those benefits are retroactive to last September and will be disbursed automatically – so no one needs to register for anything.

You can read more on Michigan Radio.