Students eat breakfast on the first day of school in September 2019 at Bush Elementary School. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
The 351,000 Oregon students who normally receive free or reduced-price meals at school will receive extra food stamps to cover the value of those meals while schools are closed.
Oregon last week got a green light from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand its food stamp program, giving families an extra $384 per child.
Families with school-age children who already receive food stamps will automatically get additional money added to their Oregon Trail cards retroactive to March, when schools closed their doors. The funds will be added in late May, the Department of Human Services and Oregon Department of Education said in a news release.
The expansion will cost Oregon about $154 million, with half the cost covered by the federal government.
The need for help with food has grown dramatically in recent months as many Oregon families have lost jobs because of pandemic-related closures, said Rick Gaupo, president and CEO of Marion Polk Food Share.
The local food banks they supply to have seen about a 50% increase in demand over the past month, Gaupo said.
Food stamp applications in Oregon have also spiked, said Jennifer Gretz, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services. Before the pandemic began, about 13,000 applications per month was typical. Now, she said the department sees 8,500 to 13,000 per week.
Though many school districts, including Salem-Keizer, are offering free meals for students to take home, families have to show up at a school between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to get food.
Gaupo praised the district’s effort to get food to families, but said coming to a school midday can still be a challenge for those who are working or can’t leave the home. Extra food stamp benefits can help close that gap.
“It will capture people who fall through the cracks a lot better,” Gaupo said.
The extra money is $5.70 for each day students would have been in school from March 16, the first day of the statewide school closure, to mid-June.
Students who receive free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch at school but don’t have food stamps will have a card mailed to them.
About 28,000 Salem-Keizer students normally receive free or reduced-price meals at school.
District workers have been handing out breakfast and lunch to-go daily at 36 schools around the district since the closure began, averaging about 20,000 meals per day in recent weeks.
“The demand we’re seeing at the locations speaks for what’s happening in the community,” said district spokeswoman Lillian Govus.
The district began handing out grocery boxes weekly at Four Corners Elementary School in early April after nearby local food banks closed their doors, and is expanding that effort to Washington Elementary School beginning May 8.
Correction: This article misstated the amount of the extra benefit in one place. It is a one-time payment of $384.
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Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
