Officials announce program for Utah families experiencing food insecurity during pandemic

Medical assistant Brandi Jenkins sorts COVID-19 samples for the lab at Utah Valley Hospital in Provo on Friday, May 8, 2020. In an effort to help address COVID-19 hot spots that have been identified in Utah County, the Intermountain Healthcare Coronavirus Mobile Testing Unit provided testing to area residents. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Daily number of COVID-19 cases continues downward trend with 354 new positives, 3 more deaths

SALT LAKE CITY — Within the last six months, food insecurity in Utah due to the pandemic has doubled, according to Utahns Against Hunger.

In February, the U.S. Department of Agriculture calculated that 1 in 12 Utah households were experiencing food insecurity. June’s insecurity rate was calculated at 1 in 6 households, and calls to food pantries for help have “sharply risen,” Alex Cragun, food security advocate for Utahns Against Hunger, said Monday. State education officials report that school districts have served 21 million meals to students since the end of the school year.

Even as Utah is seeing a decreasing number of new COVID-19 cases — 354 positives were confirmed Monday by the health department and three new deaths — the Utah Department of Workforce Services announced a program to help prevent kids from going hungry as the pandemic continues.

Parents receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as well as parents of children who were participating in the free and reduced-cost meal program at their local schools as of the end of the school year, are now eligible for a one-time benefit of $308 per child funded by the federal government through the Pandemic EBT program.

They can apply for the program at jobs.utah.gov/pebt.

Those already enrolled in SNAP do not need to apply and will receive the money on their benefit card as early as this week, said Nate McDonald, assistant deputy director for the Department of Workforce Services.

The funding won’t replace the meals served through the free and reduced-cost meal program when school starts, officials noted.

The program was announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in spring just as schools started closing due to the pandemic. State officials then went to work to meet the funding guidelines and determine how to get the benefit for Utah families, McDonald said.

Parents of an estimated 60,000 students already enrolled in SNAP will receive the benefit, meaning about $18 million in federal funds will go to those families, McDonald said.

Officials estimate 160,000 students participate in the free and reduced meal programs but aren’t SNAP recipients. They are eligible for the Pandemic EBT program, but application is required, McDonald said. If they all apply, it will bring about $50 million to the state, which will go directly to families “to help them with their food needs at this time,” McDonald said.

“This is a great opportunity going into the school year where some of these families, being able to start out with this additional support, would be a great benefit for them,” McDonald said.

“With the expiration of the $600 a week of federal (unemployment insurance) supplement, we expect food insecurity rates to increase further. This is why Pandemic EBT is needed here in Utah,” Cragun said.

He said the funding could help struggling families pay their bills “without denying their children a meal.”

Food insecurity has long-term health outcomes for children, he said, in addition to causing difficulties learning.

Utahns Against Hunger launched the website pebtutah.org to help families understand the program.

Monday case totals

The state is maintaining its daily average of new cases below 500, which Gov. Gary Herbert early last month challenged residents to do by Aug. 1 or face potential restrictions such as a statewide mask mandate. The rolling seven-day average for new daily cases is also continuing to fall, now at 435 per day, and the positive rate of tests now stands at 9.8%.

A lower-than-average number of new tests was also recorded Monday at 3,466, with a 10.2% positive rate, according to the Utah Department of Health. They bring the state’s total cases since the pandemic began to 41,529 of 540,182 people tested, an overall 7.7% positive rate.

Currently, 207 patients in Utah are receiving hospital care for the disease, up four since Sunday. Since the outbreak began, 2,450 have required hospitalization for the coronavirus.

The three additional deaths reported Monday were a Davis County woman and Salt Lake County woman, both between ages 65-84 and hospitalized when they died, and a Salt Lake County man between 45-64, who was also hospitalized.

They bring the state’s death toll due to COVID-19 to 314.

Just under 30,000 of Utah’s cases are considered recovered after surviving the three-week point since their diagnoses.

Herbert’s office said late last week he will watch case counts into this week as he decides whether or not to implement a mask mandate.

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2DrMouS