ATLANTA — The Democratic members of Georgia’s Congressional Delegation are urging Gov. Brian Kemp to let Georgia get federal funding to feed low-income students over the summer.

According to a statement from U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, this is the second year in a row that the state “refused federal funding for the USDA’s Summer EBT program.”

In the letter, McBath said the program would give Georgia’s “poorest children and families” a $40 benefit per child, if eligible, per month, for $120 per month, per child.

McBath’s office said 40% of Georgia’s 2.8 million children are eligible for the assistance, but families are being preventing from making use of it.

“This month marks the end of the second consecutive year that you have refused to participate in USDA’s Summer EBT program despite the overwhelming rates of hunger and food insecurity across our state,” the letter from McBath says.

McBath’s office said all of Georgia’s federal Democratic Party lawmakers had signed on, including U.S. Sens. Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.

The representative’s office also said Kemp’s office had yet to respond to any letters sent by Democrats on this topic, adding that Georgia is one of 12 states that did not participate in 2025.

In a separate statement, Warnock’s office noted that accepting the funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture could help feed more than 1.1 million low-income Georgia children next summer.

The summer program is only in effect while school is out.

“Committing to participate in Summer EBT is a basic step to ensuring that every child in our state, regardless of where they live or how much money their parents make, has access to the basic necessity of food when they are not in school,” the delegation said in part.

In response to Channel 2 Action News, the governor’s office shared the following statement:

“While there are no updates on whether the state will participate in the Summer EBT program, concerns over participating in a pandemic, Biden-era program that lacks nutritional standards and fiscal accountability and sustainability remain front of mind. Particularly when Georgia is seeing success with our own summer meal programs like GADoE’s Seamless Summer which has provided millions of meals to Georgia students.”

Additionally, the governor’s office said that the Seamless Summer program, which most school district in Georgia participated in, provided 3.13 million breakfasts and 3.64 million lunches in 2024.

The Happy Helpings program, which is Georgia’s Summer Food Service program, also reimbursed organizations for serving free healthy meals to children and teens in low-income areas while school was out, according to the governor’s office.

Happy Helpings served 3.3 million meals at more than 1,000 locations in 2024, the state said.

Officials also said 65 districts provided meals under what it called the non-congregate meal option in rural counties, which let families pick up five breakfasts and five lunches per child every week, without the need to consume the meal onsite.