BATON ROUGE — More than $1.4 million in special federal benefits from 2023 have gone unused and will expire in less than 30 days, according to the Baton Rouge-based Alliance to Defeat Hunger.

Parents who received federal food stamp benefits at that time should check their EBT records to make sure the funds have been used, the alliance said.

Eligible families received $120 per child, but funding for about 12,000 kids has gone unspent. 

Families should have received notices about their funds in the mail. 

The CEO of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and member of the Alliance to Defeat Hunger Mike Manning said if families have not received the funding to make sure to update their mailing address at their child's school and the state Medicaid office.

“If they’re looking for these dollars they should just check and see if they’re there, and they should monitor it to find out if they didn’t receive that then why so they can follow up with (Department of Child and Family Services),” Manning said.

Manning said it is important that families are aware of the extra funding.

“It’s most important that we take care of the kids. Children are our most important resource, our most valuable resource going forward so we need to make sure that we help them as much as possible,” Manning said.