The NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) announced on Thursday, April 29 that the state is now expanding eligibility for food assistance benefits to college students in North Carolina.
The move comes after a year-long rollout of one county state and federal plan after another to help virtually all groups hurt by the pandemic. In addition to the many new programs, a lot of pre-existing programs have been expanded.
Due to this latest move by NCDHHS, some college students in the state are now eligible to receive assistance through the Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) program – a program once known as “food stamps.”
This “temporary” change of benefits has been cleared by the federal government which bears much of the cost of the FNS programs.
The new benefits will run through at least June 30 of this year.
The help comes through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund that is part of the ongoing help from the COVID-19 Emergency Relief Act of 2020.
According to the terms of the aid: “To be eligible, students must have filed a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and have documentation of an estimated family contribution of $0 on their federal student aid determination or eligibility for work study. To ensure every eligible college student who has been worried about their next meal is aware of the change and to encourage them to apply for FNS benefits, the Department of Education has begun its own direct outreach through email to inform college students about the temporary changes to the work requirement exemptions for the FNS program.”
Eligible college students who’ve applied for FNS benefits will receive an Electronic Benefits Transfer card, which is similar to a debit card. That “EBT” card can be used to purchase food at grocery stores, farmers markets – and, due to recent changes, even online through Amazon, Walmart, Aldi, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Food Lion, Carli C’s and Publix.
College students can determine if they’re eligible and apply for food assistance at http://www.ncdhhs.gov/assistance/low-income-services/food-nutrition-services-food-stamps.
Alternatively, they can contact their local Department of Social Services.
I don’t get it. They go into tens of thousands of dollars of debt for college but don’t have money for food. Can anyone say misplaced priorities?
“This “temporary” change of benefits has been cleared by the federal government which bears much of the cost of the FNS programs.”
Sorry, but that is totally fake news. The federal government NEVER bears the cost of anything, and never will, since the government is not just broke (in addition to being broken) but is 30 TRILLION dollars in debt. Any food a college student gets under this program will be paid for by taxpayers, and by no one else.
You can bet that this small amount of help that a struggling student receives now will be more than made up for after the degree is obtained and they are a contributing society member. We have to invest in the future. This works to help reduce the obesity epidemic in our nation by creating access to healthy food (not ramen and peanut butter sandwiches) as well as lifting families out of poverty. Educated people raise educated children. This is an INVESTMENT in the future of our nation.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. One more step towards a guaranteed national (socialist) income.
My oh my . . . .how did those of us who went to college back in the 1960s & 70s, while working a part time job, ever get a degree.
If not having anything to eat is really a problem, then let them get a part time job at McDonalds or other part time job to earn money to buy food. Simple, right?
If hunger is a big problem, how did they get the money for tuition, books, etc? Oh. . . .that’s right . . . the applied for government loans which they now want the government to forgive so their college loans would be free. . . .just like the food they want. . . . for free. They all need to read Milton Friedman’s books. . . .yes, those who detest ever taking an economics 101 class in college.
The parents of the 90’s and early 2000’s has fostered a culture in which their children want others to provide them with basics, without having to work for it. The ones who are hungry can get a part time job, and even with the Federal money coming in, some don’t want to work since the $$$$ they are getting from Biden is more than a part time job. God help our country!!
I’ll tell you how people went to college in the 60’s and 70’s. Your tuition was maybe 20-30% of what it is now. Minimum wage was comparable to the cost of living.
If you think the cost of college is high now, just wait until it’s “free”!
Bingo Wayne!!! And why would Harvard, with a “$40 billion” trust fund need to get over 100 million from the Feds in Biden’s spending plan? I can tell you why. . . .it’s the votes he gets from liberal institutions, all of whom are liberals.
That’s awfully conspiratorial of you. The previous administration just gave them an actual $8.7M.
But you’re worried about a fictitious $100M that the current administration has not given to Harvard? Do you even have a source for that number going to Harvard? Or, are you just making things up per the usual strategy?
These people who cannot even feed themselves are going to be running our country soon. If they are really needy and serious about school, OK. Food is basic. Help ’em out. Wonderful program. But if instead of working even part time and getting through college in say, half a decade, and are professional students marching around raising H-E-Double Chopsticks, I suggest these budding CEO’s get A Jay-Oh-Bee. Perhaps in one of the dozens of local restaurants with “Help Wanted” signs. It is of course. beneath their “skill level” but they can eat free; there at (brace yourself, dirty word ahead) the WORKPLACE. Humbling for them to wait on people who one day will be working for them and all. They will have to learn not to sneer at the customers however.