When Governor Ricketts announced he was extending Pandemic-EBT, a program that replaces school meals for kids whose schools have closed because of COVID-19, he used it as justification for not extending SNAP Emergency Allotments, a federal program that put around $7.6M in SNAP benefits in the hands of 40,000 Nebraska households per month. We were the ONLY state not to extend these benefits in August and September.
We learned today that the P-EBT program extension will only provide around $763,000 of relief.
The choice to extend a very small program instead of a very big one is difficult to understand. It’s also completely unnecessary since we could be doing both:
Food assistance is still desperately needed in Nebraska as long as the federal and state emergency declarations remain in place. And guess what: as long as those are in place, Nebraska can still apply for SNAP Emergency Allotments through December.
One of our SNAP petition signers shared this comment with their signature from Plattsmouth:
“We are trying to stand up after being knocked down by the pandemic, don’t pull the carpet out from under us before we are standing and steady.”
Tell the Governor to do the right thing. The emergency is far from over, and our current COVID data is worrisome, especially going into the winter. Call Governor Ricketts office at (402) 471-2244 and sign Appleseed’s petition to extend SNAP Emergency Allotments and call the Governor today:
