A large number of Wheeler Students received pandemic EBT benefits, also known as food stamps in late December and early January. Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) is an system that allows Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program SNAP participants to use their benefits to pay for food and other essentials at grocery stores. The federal government created the Pandemic EBT program to provide cash assistance to families whose schools had shut down for periods of 5 days or longer during the 2021 school year. Families around the country received an EBT card with funds placed on it, which they could use to buy food when schools were closed rather than pick up or wait for meals to be delivered. These benefits, which were delivered to families through the mail, could be used similarly to a debit card.

The SNAP program is part of a federal block grant for the state that is allocated for specific state programs. SNAP is administered by departments of food and agriculture. The mission of the program itself is to offer nutrition benefits to help low-income families supplement their food budgets so they can buy healthy food and strive toward self-sufficiency. These particular benefits were crucial to keeping students in school and learning. It has been found that it is near impossible for students to learn when their basic needs are not met, and when families are food-insecure, it becomes extraordinarily difficult for students to learn. These disparities in home life have created already-visible disparities in educational outcomes. There is an urgent need to stop the backslide and address students’ needs. This need has begun to be addressed by concerted efforts of federal, state, and nonprofit actors.

Wheeler students received benefits that were distributed by the state of Georgia. There was approximately $70 sent to each Cobb County student, even beyond Wheeler High school. These beneficiaries included families that were normally ineligible for welfare programs. Although there is no definitive reason why so many families received these benefits, it may be because of the district’s decision to opt into the 2021 lunch initiative.

Smera Bhatia (12) expressed her irritation with the current system citing the misallocation of money that is already stretched thin. Will Kramer (11) echoed these concerns and further discussed that they might be useful if students use the benefits to purchase food for the Wheeler food pantry. This could be made possible by visiting a grocery store which accepts EBT benefits, purchasing items that are much needed for Wheeler’s food pantry such as bagged rice or canned beans, and directly donating them.

Maya Simmons (12) on the other hand said, “it’s very supportive of [the county] to reach out to students that may be struggling at this time.” She broached an important point that many families’ incomes were impacted by the pandemic, and Georgians as a whole faced issues with financial uncertainty.

Liam England (12) noted that his sister, who attends a different Cobb county school was also a recipient of these benefits. He said that his family did not use them, and instead discarded the cards that they received. There are a few ways to navigate these benefits. What is considered the most straightforward path would be to simply dispose of the card if it was not necessary. The money that was loaded onto that card would simply be placed back into the pool of money allocated for SNAP.

Students may also choose to use these, in which case, most local retailers accept the cards, including ALDI, Kroger, and Publix. These cards do only work for certain types of food, and in some cases, it is possible that they will not work when purchasing “unhealthy” food.