THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, May 14, 2021 Page 9 MPS eyes ways to increase SNAP BUDGET | FROM PAGE 1 participation by school families Families of over 90 percent of MPS students received emergency pandemic P-EBT benefi ts; some 1,980 MPS students eligible for SNAP not signed up with program This new platform will revolutionize budgeting for Malden and will provide a user experience for residents that are informative, effi cient, and easily accessible. “I know we share the collective goal of transparency in budgeting, including through resident input at the annual budget public hearing,” said Mayor Christenson. “The implementation of this new online budgeting tool represents a tremendous leap forward by the City in modernizing our budget process, increasing the depth of information shared with the public and generally making the annual budget a more comprehensive exercise," the Mayor said. Various sections of the budBy Steve Freker N early all of the families of just over 6,200 Malden Public Schools (MPS) students in the district were eligible for and received emergency Pandemic Electronic Balance Transfer (P-EBT) funds over the course of the past year. Superintendent John Oteri and the MPS central administration is considering ways to further increase participation in other federally funded programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which also uses an EBT card and was formerly known as the food stamp program. Over 90 percent (5,780) of Malden students received P-EBT benefit payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and data show that there are 1,980 students eligible, but whose families are not participating, who could be getting SNAP benefi ts. Since families can get the maximum SNAP benefi t now, Supt. Oteri said, the district wants to make sure all eligible children are getting SNAP. “Food insecurity existed before COVID-19, increased during this pandemic and it still exists in the Malden community,” Supt. Oteri told the Malden School Committee at its recent meeting. “We must continue to inform and assist our families so they can best address their basic nutritional needs.” Supt. Oteri said the district is considering partnering with some outside agencies to help get the word out and inform families of possible additional benefi ts. According to the latest fi gures, over 355,000 students received P-EBT federal assistance benefi t payments, due to the COVID-10 pandemic in Massachusetts this year and of that group it is estimated that about half of these students could be eligible for federal SNAP through USDA but are not receiving this benefi t. This program was formerly referred to as food stamps, which families received to pay for “food-related only” items. MassINC Polling Group reached out to the district recently to discuss a potential collaboration with the Shah Family Foundation and its own group, according to Superintendent Oteri. If Malden decides to collaborate, the Shah Foundation would engage the MassINC Polling Group to survey families in districts where most or all families received P-EBT to understand their perceptions of SNAP and why they are not enrolling. Shah would use this data to help inform outreach and policy eff orts. They would launch a survey and the district would send it out in eight languages. This would also be sent via Blackboard Connect through phone calls and emails translated into 14 languages, social media, placing it on the website and sending a fl ier home with weekend meals. All results would be provided to the district. The survey would take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete Four $50 VISA gift cards would be raffl ed off as an incentive for families to complete the entire survey. Families receiving SNAP benefi ts may use the funds to purchase any food for the household, such as the following: fruits and vegetables; meat, poultry and fi sh; dairy products; breads and cereals; snack foods and nonalcoholic beverages; seeds and plants, which produce food for the household to eat. Households cannot use SNAP benefi ts to buy beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes or tobacco; vitamins, medicines and supplements (If an item has a Supplement Facts label, it is considered a supplement and is not eligible for SNAP purchase); live animals (except shellfi sh, fi sh removed from water and animals slaughtered prior to pick-up from the store); foods that are hot at the point of sale; any nonfood items, such as pet foods, cleaning supplies, paper products and other household supplies; hygiene items or cosmetics. get can be easily linked, shared, or printed to maximize the accessibility of this important information and setting a new standard for transparency in budgeting. As a convenience, for residents who would like to learn more about the budget software platform, the City has developed a short interactive video which shows how to navigate the new budget software. This instructional video along with a link to the Fiscal Year 2022 budget may be found at www. cityofmalden.org/budget. “I would like to thank Director Ron Hogan and CFO Chuck Ranaghan who have been working on this budget and the implementation of the new platform since December,” said Mayor Christenson. “I also want to thank our department heads who actively participated in the process through this new platform, resulting in a fi scally responsible budget that we can all be proud of.” “I’m pleased to present a balanced budget for Fiscal Year 2022 which covers the period of July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. Coming off a year that will be talked about for generations to come, we nevertheless fi nd ourselves cautiously optimistic. This is in large part due to extraordinary actions taken by our federal government with the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), as well as the Governor and our State Legislative Delegation working to protect local funding as much as possible, said the mayor.” While Fiscal Year 2021 local revenues have so far underperformed even our reduced expectations, largely in the areas of meal taxes, parking revenue, tax collection and permitting, we believe that better days are ahead and that APRA will provide the transition funding needed to get there without any signifi cant reductions in services. A BUSINESS CHECKING ACCOUNT THAT CHECKS ALL THE BOXES. LOW MONTHLY FEES - ONLINE BANKING & BILL PAY REMOTE DEPOSIT CAPTURE - COIN SERVICES TALK TO US TODAY ABOUT OUR DIFFERENT BUSINESS CHECKING ACCOUNTS. WE’LL HELP YOU FIND THE RIGHT OPTION. EVERETT – 419 BROADWAY LYNNFIELD – 7 7 1 SALEM STREET 61 7-38 7 - 1 1 10 Visit our website to learn more at: EVERETTBANK . 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