As pandemic rages, Kentucky children are going hungry. Congress must provide more food relief.

In just months, the COVID-19 pandemic has destroyed a decade of progress in the fight to end hunger in Kentucky. Kentuckians are facing challenges to keep nourishing food on the table unlike anything we have seen for a generation or more.

The sharp increase in number of households with children facing hunger – some research is showing it is now more than 1 in 4 – demonstrates that many families were one lost job or serious illness away from hunger.

The food banks in the Feeding Kentucky network have been working overtime since mid-March to help meet the need for emergency food assistance among Kentuckians. The network distributed 79 million meals from July 2019 – June 2020, which is an increase of more than 9 million pounds of food over the previous year.

That increase was possible thanks in part to thousands of generous individual Kentucky donors as well as partners such as the Kentucky General Assembly, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Kentucky Farm Bureau, Farm Credit Mid-America, the Novak Family Foundation, and WellCare of Kentucky.

But food banks can’t do it alone. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the nation’s first line of defense against hunger; for every one meal provided by a food bank, SNAP provides nine.

Families of school children should know about the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program. It helps households with eligible children who missed school meals during the initial months of the pandemic by providing a benefits card that families can use to buy food. Any student who received free or reduced price meals at school prior to COVID-related school closures is eligible; there is no income limit to participate in the program. Benefits should have been added automatically for families with an EBT card. Families without a current EBT card need to apply at benefind.ky.gov. The deadline to apply is August 31, 2020.

It is unacceptable that Congress adjourned for the August recess without extending the P-EBT program beyond the March-May 2020 time period. That means the eligible children at schools with online-only classes this fall term will miss out on these benefits. P-EBT must be extended.

Congress must also increase SNAP benefits by 15 percent and keep the boost in place throughout the economic downturn resulting from the pandemic. Too many Kentuckians are having to make the agonizing choice between paying for rent or for medicine versus paying for food. Increasing SNAP benefits by 15 percent would mean an additional $25 per month per person.

Hunger is a problem we can solve. We need our leaders in Washington to do their part by supporting SNAP and P-EBT in the final coronavirus relief package.

Tamara Sandberg is executive director of Feeding Kentucky, a statewide network of seven regional food banks and more than 800 local banks.