Some families are being forced to choose between remote learning and school meals

Joel Barron, a mother of two in Minnetonka, Minn., has a question for policymakers: "Will you look in my child's eyes when they do not have any food?" Until recently, Barron's children, ages 10 and 12, qualified for free school meals. During the last school year, when they and millions of other kids were learning remotely, Barron received the value of the meals they missed on a debit card that she could use to buy groceries herself. The program, called P-EBT , began with the pandemic in March 2020. "It was a godsend," Barron says of the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer program, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). "We were able to actually get through the whole month without trying to think about, 'Oh, we have to go to the food [pantry].' " That changed after Barron's school district reopened for in-person learning. Because a COVID-19 vaccine wasn't yet available for her 10-year-old son and her daughter struggles with asthma, Barron felt safer keeping