Niki Kozlowski, Acting Deputy Secretary at the New Mexico Healthcare Authority, talks about the Summer food program for families with children. Here is a transcript of her conversation with KC Counts:
KC Counts:
So let's talk a little bit about food insecurity in general in New Mexico and how the state is trying to address it, especially with these summer months and kids being out of school.
Niki Kozlowski:
Yes, overall, from a food insecurity perspective, the HCA has several programs, but most notably for Summer, we have our Sun Bucks program, which is our supplemental EBT card program for children while they're in their summer months outside of school.
KC Counts:
And how many children do you anticipate the program will serve?
Niki Kozlowski:
Right now, our summer program reaches about 293,000 children.
KC Counts:
So let's talk a little bit about how families can know if they qualify.
Niki Kozlowski:
Yeah, there's several ways that they can determine whether or not they qualify. Most children automatically qualify if you already receive SNAP, Medicaid, or TANF throughout our school years, or if you have qualified for free or reduced school meals through the national lunch program or the school breakfast program, they're identified by their school as anybody else that is experiencing homelessness or participating in migrant education programs. And then any foster care student by CYFD have been automatically identified. And then for families to find out if they do qualify or if they did not, they can apply online at our Yes New Mexico website.
KC Counts:
And some folks that are outside of that automatic qualification set of categories could still qualify. Tell us under what circumstances that may be the case.
Niki Kozlowski:
Correct. You would do the application, but essentially if you live in New Mexico, a child attends a school participating in the school lunch program or the school breakfast program, and/or if your household income is 185% of the poverty level.
KC Counts:
And it was delayed. Tell us about why that happened.
Niki Kozlowski:
Yeah, essentially we did have a delay in issuing benefits. What happened was the funding was held at the federal government level, so we did not have the funds released to the USDA, which then administers it to our program so that we can issue. That was delayed about 45 days.
KC Counts:
And so everything's working smoothly now at this point.
Niki Kozlowski:
Yes, there are a few stipulations that we have to follow, but yes, we did receive our approval of our state plans, and then we have a notification that needs to go to all of the customers. It's an opt-out notification, so those have been sent. And once that time period is done, then we'll begin issuing benefits, which will be on June 15th.
KC Counts:
All right, and especially right now, the squeeze is on, I think, in every aspect of life for all kinds of families. So no doubt that summer food help will really make a difference for so many families. What does it mean to them?
Niki Kozlowski:
Yes, I think that, you know, it's very difficult when you're used to receiving your meals at school and it's pretty consistent. And for you to go and leave school and not have that consistency is the essence of why the program exists. So unfortunate that we were delayed, but hopefully given some of our school years are barely just ending, some are still in session. We're about a month late, unfortunately, due to the delay. you aren't in a program that has already been pre-identified, it's not too late to apply and we'll be doing multiple issuance to catch up those that apply during the Summer.
KC Counts:
All right, now obviously with new federal requirements for SNAP, do you think that will impact, or maybe I should ask you first if you can say how it's already impacted New Mexicans and whether it would impact people applying for Sun Bucks?
Niki Kozlowski:
It will not affect Sun Bucks for those who have those qualifications that I mentioned earlier. However, because it's for children, it doesn't apply to a lot of the rules that have been in place for New Mexicans for SNAP. So we have seen all. the implications from HR1 for SNAP go into effect this year. So we are seeing some of those come to fruition, but essentially, the biggest piece was our work requirements and our immigration status changes for SNAP. And so those are the biggest impactors for SNAP, but it should not be affecting the children for Sun Bucks.
KC Counts:
All right, well hopefully we can have a larger conversation about that in the near future. Nikki Kozlowski, Acting Deputy Secretary of the Health Care Authority. Thank you so much for sharing that important information with us. We appreciate it.
Niki Kozlowski:
Thank you. I appreciate your time today.
You can learn more about the Sun Bucks program right here.
