TRENTON, N.J. — More than 681,000 eligible children across New Jersey will begin receiving Summer EBT benefits in the coming days as part of a permanent federal program designed to help low-income families purchase food while school is out of session.

The New Jersey Department of Agriculture, in partnership with the New Jersey Department of Human Services and the New Jersey Innovation Authority, announced the distribution of the benefits with support from the New Jersey Department of Education and the New Jersey Office of the Food Security Advocate.

Each eligible child will receive a one-time $120 Summer EBT benefit that can be used to purchase nutritious food at grocery stores, farmers markets and other authorized retailers during the summer months.

State officials expect more than $94 million in federal food assistance to be distributed through the program this summer, benefiting eligible children across 734 participating school food authorities.

“Just because the school season ends it does not mean we stop taking steps to feed students,” said Ed Wengryn, NJ Secretary of Agriculture. “Summer EBT cards provide needed financial support for families to expand food purchasing power while schools are in recess.”

Students are eligible through participating school districts if they qualify for free or reduced-price school meals or attend schools participating in the Community Eligibility Provision. School-aged children ages 6 to 16 who are enrolled in SNAP, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, income-eligible Medicaid or foster care also qualify regardless of where they attend school.

The Department of Human Services’ Division of Family Development has begun issuing new Summer EBT cards for 2026. Each eligible child will receive a separate card that can be activated and used for food purchases.

Recipients have 122 days, or approximately four months, to use the benefits before any remaining balance expires.

“As families face uncertainty about food assistance programs, Summer EBT helps ensure children continue to have access to nutritious food when school is out,” said Department of Human Services Commissioner Stephen Cha. “This support helps families supplement their food budgets and keep healthy meals on the table during the summer break.”

State officials said data from several enrollment programs was used to identify eligible children and streamline benefit distribution.

“Perhaps no single issue is more urgent than making sure New Jersey children have access to nutritious food,” said New Jersey State Chief Innovation Officer Dave Cole. “With NJDA, we combed through enrollment information of several state programs to determine eligibility, reduced deduplication, accurately identified thousands of eligible students, and helped ensure program integrity. Thank you, again, to the Department of Agriculture and our other State partners for working to provide this assistance to New Jersey families.”

Education Commissioner Dr. Lily Laux said the program helps bridge the nutritional gap when school meal programs are unavailable.

“The Summer EBT program continues to make a meaningful difference for children across New Jersey by ensuring they have access to nutritious food when school is out,” said Dr. Lily Laux, Commissioner of Education. “School meals can be a lifeline for many students during the school year, and Summer EBT helps bridge that gap during the summer months. This support helps students stay healthy and ready to learn when they return to school in the fall.”

Mark Dinglasan, executive director of the New Jersey Office of the Food Security Advocate, said the program helps families manage rising grocery costs while supporting local businesses and farmers.

“As working families are navigating higher grocery bills and more, Summer EBT is a way for New Jersey to assist our students and families who rely on the nourishment and stability that school meals provide during the school year. For these families, the summer break upends their carefully managed household budgets and can create greater challenges for the steady access of food during the months when schools are closed,” said Mark Dinglasan, Executive Director of the New Jersey Office of the Food Security Advocate. “Summer EBT is a powerful way to mitigate such challenges and has a positive ripple effect across our communities. Summer EBT supports the dignity and agency of families to shop for the nourishing foods their children need and want, in ways that make sense to them, including this year’s new eligibility to place online food orders for pickup or delivery from any retailer that accepts SNAP. Those purchases mean sales for local retailers and for our farmers who sell their harvests and products through farm stands, farmers’ markets and more. Plus, Summer EBT can supplement services families may receive from food pantries and other community-based organizations, ensuring a more sustainable way of supporting families during the summer. New Jersey is proud to be among the states that have decided to participate in Summer EBT since the start of this federal program, and I appreciate and congratulate all of the state agencies who continue to work collaboratively with each other and with communities to serve our children and families on such a large scale.”

Families can learn more about eligibility and the program by visiting www.nj.gov/summerebt/ or by contacting their local school district.

Command (6-1, 187 pounds) plays for Orebro’s junior club in the Swedish Hockey League. With the U20 Nationell team in 2025-26, he posted 17 goals and 44 points in 30 games while adding 13 points (5g-8a) in 14 playoff games. Command finished with three goals and seven points in seven games for Sweden as the top-line center in the World Under-18 Junior Championship to help his country win gold.

Command made his professional debut with six games played in the SHL while his draft stock soared late in the year.

Though Command had a good conversation with the Devils at the Combine, he was still surprised to hear his name called.

“I was just surprised and happy. Emotions all over the place,” he said. “So grateful for the people who helped me there.”

And of course, he shared his selection with his family, those who helped him get to this point.

“It means for me, pretty much the world,” he said of sharing the experience with his family. “It’s not me who’s getting drafted, it’s them also. So, I’m just happy for them also.”

Command’s family even got a chance to join him through a portion of the car wash. You know, where was asked to smile. But don’t let Command’s serious demeanor fool you. Smile or not, he’s ecstatic about how everything played out.

“As you can imagine, pretty much the best feeling for me I’ve ever had,” he said. “So, very, very happy. Very, very happy.”

And as far as his message to the organization and Devils fans, he had this to say with full-throated confidence.

“You made a good choice,” he said. “I’m happy to be here. I don’t think there’s more to it.

“I’m just getting started.”

Just like humans may err in recognizing faces, facial recognition technology (FRT) is not without its flaws. Multiple defendants have blamed the technology for wrongful arrests as more and more law enforcement agencies rely on the technology to identify suspects. Meanwhile, limits on its use vary from state to state and city to city. 

A ruling this week regarding a murder case in New Jersey, however, forces law enforcement to disclose how this technology is used in criminal investigations in the state. 

In State v. Tybear Miles, New Jersey’s Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors must disclose how FRT was used to identify defendant Tybear Miles, who had been charged with “first-degree murder and weapons offenses.”

The case stems from a 2021 fatal shooting in Jersey City. A day after the shooting, officers showed a confidential informant, who did not witness the incident, CCTV footage from a nearby location. The informant identified two males by their street names and Instagram usernames, according to the ruling. After the informant identified one of the males as “Fat Daddy,” police ran a photo from “Fat Daddy’s” Instagram page through a facial recognition module, which identified Miles as a potential match. 

The ruling notes that the state provided the defendant with two different FRT searches as part of discovery. One search, according to the ruling, “returned a list of ten possible ‘matches’ to the probe image of [the] defendant, with [the] defendant ranked as the eighth ‘match’ on the list of ten.” Another search “returned a list of ten possible ‘matches,’ with five different images of [the] defendant ranked in the first five positions.” 

Miles’ sister and ex-girlfriend both identified Miles from videos and still images from other nearby surveillance footage, according to the ruling. The ruling states that “no witness identified defendant as the shooter; there were several people near the victim while he was shot twice; and all of the police interviewees were shown video footage and still photographs from approximately ninety minutes before the murder and seven minutes before the murder.”

Miles’ defense demanded details about how FRT was used in the case, and the trial judge ordered prosecutors to hand over 13 items, citing precedent from an earlier case requiring prosecutors to hand over FRT discovery items, reported the New Jersey Monitor. 

In Wednesday’s ruling, the New Jersey Supreme Court partially upheld the lower court order, reported Reuters. Justice Douglas Fasciale wrote that the state is required to produce “discovery identifying the FRT tools and materials the State used in its investigation,” including the name and manufacturer of the software and publicly available information about its error rates. The state must also turn over items such as the original photograph used in the probe as part of discovery. The ruling does not, however, require the state to produce the “source code of the FRT algorithm and any similar proprietary information applicable to the FRT utilized by the State,” but, if warranted, a defendant could pursue a discovery request for the proprietary information. 

“The right to a fair trial is guaranteed under the Federal and State Constitutions, and due process compels the State to disclose evidence favorable to an accused,” asserts the ruling. 

The New Jersey Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed an amicus brief in the case, praised the ruling, and one of its attorneys called it a “major victory for civil liberties,” adding it is “one of the first state high court rulings of its kind.” Some states, including Maryland, Montana, and Washington, require law enforcement agencies to disclose the use of FRT to defendants before trial, but few laws and court rulings provide guidance about how the technology is used in the criminal justice system. Regardless of Miles’ guilt or innocence, the ruling is an encouraging sign that more states may recognize the need for transparency regarding FRT as law enforcement increasingly relies on the technology to track and identify suspects.