The department had already added thousands of children to the program but needed additional technological support to sift through different databases and new applications to find more children who hadn’t received the benefit, according to Rose Chamberlain, director at the state Department of Agriculture’s Division of Food and Nutrition.
That’s where the Office of Innovation came in.
“Our goal here is to really make it as easy as possible for families so that they don’t have to take an extra step,” said Dave Cole, chief innovation officer at the state Office of Innovation. “The goal is if you get school meals during the year or you get SNAP or Medicaid, you will get this grocery benefit.”
The NJ Summer EBT Program is a federally funded program managed by the state Department of Agriculture that gives low-income children a one-time $120 EBT card during the summer.
The program is designed to bridge the gap during the summer for children who rely on free and reduced school meals, Chamberlain said. Children who receive other state benefits, such as Medicaid, are eligible for the NJ Summer EBT Program.
The various state benefits are managed and distributed by different government entities. For example, the state Department of Human Services manages Medicaid. People can also apply for the summer program through their local school district.
Last year, over about six months, the Office of Innovation worked with the Agriculture Department to collect data from various agencies. It then used statistical pattern finding, a type of artificial intelligence, to identify eligible children that the department had not caught the first time it enrolled kids, and check to see if new applicants had already received the benefit.
In 2024, the Office of Innovation identified 106,000 eligible children, or about 15% of the benefits recipients, who the Department of Agriculture automatically enrolled and distributed $12.8 million in benefits to. As of June, the department had already identified 76,000 children, or about 11% of the total benefits recipients, who the Department of Agriculture automatically enrolled and distributed $9.1 million in benefits to.
It would have been impossible to complete this task without using statistical analysis, Cole said.
The Office of Innovation used free and low-cost resources to keep the program’s costs down, he said.
Sarah Geiger, senior director of programs and services at the Food Bank of South Jerseyin Pennsauken, said it’s a great use of government resources.
“We applaud them for using technology in a smart and responsible way,” Geiger said. “There are definitely children and families who qualify for the program, for free and reduced lunch, but they weren’t participating in it.”
Finding these families and automatically enrolling them reduces many barriers that lower-income families can face, Geiger said.
It also allows organizations that enroll families for benefits to reallocate the resources they spend getting families signed up, she said.
“We have 300 community partners we work with to distribute food out into the community, to engage them,” Geiger said. “They’re doing so much work already distributing food. You can only get so far, and you’re not going to be able to reach everybody.
The newer approach “just reduced all of those barriers not only for the end user,” Geiger added. “But also for all the people within this very many-layered system of people, whether it’s through the food banks or other partner organizations.”
She hopes to see this technology used to enroll people in other benefit programs automatically.
Cole said the Office of Innovation’s work on the NJ Summer EBT Program could make that a reality.
He said the Office of Innovation is in talks with other agencies to repurpose the code for other programs.
“There are a lot of privacy issues to work through. There are a lot of security issues to work through. Those are very important,” Cole said. “But what we would like to do is offer residents in the state the option to have very proactive automatic support from the state wherever possible.”
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