Last month, with one stroke of his pen, Gov. Greg Abbott made summer harder and hungrier for nearly 4 million kids in Texas when he vetoed funding for Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer, a program that would have provided nutrition benefits for kids while school is out of session.
This should have been a slam dunk – an opportunity to feed kids and generate millions of dollars in federal funding for our state. In 37 states, from Arkansas to West Virginia to Ohio, governors across the political spectrum have seen that and done right by kids in adopting Summer EBT. In Texas, the program had strong support from bipartisan legislators and state officials this session, as well as child hunger experts across the state. Yet Abbott made it his only line-item veto of a Legislature-approved item in the state budget.
Abbott’s decision was cruel, but it was also stunningly misguided.
First, the program works. Summer EBT provides eligible families with a $120 grocery benefit per child to replace the meals kids receive when school is in session. Summer is the hungriest time of year for kids, when the school meals they rely on aren’t available. Food banks and community partners provide incredible programs, but they cannot reach every kid – nor can every kid reach them. Anyone who has driven a few minutes outside of Austin knows that homes quickly grow miles apart or are separated by highways. Summer EBT helps to solve for this by giving families resources to buy healthy meals. It is proven to reduce hunger and ensure kids eat more fruits and vegetables. That’s a big reason why the program has always had strong bipartisan support.
I know this firsthand: I worked for years as an anti-hunger advocate, supporting efforts to pass legislation in Congress to expand this program from a handful of small pilots (including one in Texas) to a nationwide option. My work took me to rural Arkansas where parents told me that Summer EBT would ensure their kids would have lunch even when they lived miles from the closest summer meals site. In suburban Las Vegas, families told me it would help them avoid choosing between air conditioning bills and groceries when the temperature soared. And, here in Texas, parents from Austin to El Paso said it would put meals on the table during these long, hot summer months.
It’s not surprising that members of Congress from both sides of the aisle stepped up to lead these efforts, understanding that giving kids access to nutritious food during the summer isn’t partisan.
Second, the $60 million in the Legislature’s budget would have unlocked about $450 million in federal funds that Texas simply won’t get now. That’s $450 million that won’t flow into grocery stores and farmers’ markets across our state. His reasoning for the veto – a concern over the stability of federal funds – is totally unfounded.
Finally, this is not theoretical. Families in Texas are struggling. I’ve seen it in my neighborhood Facebook groups and in our local news since schools let out for the summer – parents working hard to get by, looking for resources to make sure their kids get healthy meals without the consistency of the breakfasts and lunches they can rely on during the school year.
Austin’s food culture is one of the many reasons I love calling this city home. Our commitment to food as a community value makes national headlines for all the right reasons – our incredible restaurants, a best-in-class school nutrition program at AISD, and some of the country’s most amazing food banks that are the engine behind the anti-hunger movement. Gov. Abbott has now put us on the map for all the wrong reasons. Kids in Texas deserve better than what he’s serving them.
Lucy Coady, an Austin resident, is a senior director at Evergreen Strategy Group. She has worked on anti-hunger and social policy programs throughout her career, including on Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign. In that role, she supported advocacy efforts for the federal legislation that allowed Summer EBT to become a national state option.
This article appears in July 11 • 2025.