North Carolina Ending Emergency Food And Nutrition Benefits For Many Families
A service that has been helping North Carolina families throughout the last several years is ending. Around 1 million North Carolina families will no longer be able to take advantage of the COVID-19 emergency allotments through the state’s Food and Nutrition Services. The loss of these additional food and nutrition benefits means our neighbors could be left wondering where they’ll get their next meal. Especially as grocery prices continue to rise nationwide.
According to the NCDHHS, families enrolled in Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) have gotten extra benefits each month since March 2020 or after due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. February 2023 is the last month to get these extra benefits. They are called “emergency allotments” or “maximum supplements.” This is due to a federal change that will end emergency allotments for all states as of March 2023
Eligible households were getting a minimum of $95 more per month, and they will see that amount is no longer included in checks after February. If you’re enrolled in FNS, you will revert to getting your regular monthly benefit amounts in March 2023. The amount of this benefit depends on your current eligibility, household size, as well as other federal eligibility requirements.
You can view your regular monthly benefit amount online at www.ebtedge.com or through the EBT Edge mobile app. You can also view your current emergency allotment amount there.
More information on the program and other options are available here.
Two North Carolina Restaurants Featured In Yelp's Top 100 Places To Eat
We are always looking for new restaurants to try. Our friends often have great recommendations but another resource we use is the review site Yelp. The site recently released its annual list of the Top 100 Places To Eat in the US for 2023. There were two North Carolina restaurants that were named to the top places to eat list. One of them is even local to Charlotte! The other you will find in Greensboro. To determine this list Yelp reached out to the user community first, requesting individuals to submit their favorite U.S. restaurants. From there the data science team at Yelp looked at the top community submissions to determine the top restaurants by ratings, number of reviews, and volume of submissions. They also made sure to include an equal geographic representation. Yelp community managers helped finalize the rankings.
That leads us to the 2023 Top 100 Places To Eat List. It includes eateries in a wide variety of cuisines including Italian, Ethiopian, Hawaiian, and Vegan offerings. It was not just North Carolina featured with two of the top places to eat. There was also a Charleston, South Carolina spot that made the list. I’ve featured each of those three places as well as highlighted to top 10 spots. If you’re interested in restaurants in other areas of the country you can see everything Yelp included at this link.
Melanie Day is a graduate of North Carolina State University. She has worked for Beasley since 2012 in a variety of behind-the-scenes roles in both digital and promotions. Melanie writes about a diverse range of topics some of her favorites include travel, restaurants, Taylor Swift, and college athletics. When not at work you'll find her at a country concert or NC State sporting event.
