~a column by Mary Weaver
I hope you had a joyous Christmas, and the year 2024 will be a positive one for you and your loved ones.
Many of us did not see the impactful news release given on Friday afternoon, Dec. 22. Our children and grandchildren were gathering that afternoon at our home for our family’s Christmas weekend. The press release came from the Iowa Department of Education and the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, and included statements from Governor Reynolds.
The release indicated Iowa had turned down United States Department of Agricultural, USDA, dollars to feed low-income children during the summer. The Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) federal program would give families $40 a month for each of their children. This would allow them to buy groceries over the summer, when free and reduced-priced school lunches are not available. Iowa’s portion of the part of the administration of the program was $2.2 million, this amount to come from Iowa’s $1.8 billion surplus.
More than Iowa 203,000 students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch during the 2022-23 school year, according to data from the Iowa Department of Education. This amount would bring in potentially $24,000,000 federal funds to feed low-income Iowa kids.
The timing of the release had a double feeling of sliminess, coming out on the afternoon of the Christmas holiday, to be overlooked by readers. An internet search reflects the initial guidance for the state implementation of the Summer EBT in 2024 was given to agencies on June 7, 2023, six months prior to the press release.
Data compiled by Feeding America has revealed in Iowa nearly 376,000 people are struggling with hunger, with 122,000 of them children. That translates to one in eight adults and one in six children.
“Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families. An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic,” Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said in the news release.
The press release did include a statement that the Department of Education and Health and Human Services plan “enhancing and expanding already existing childhood nutrition programs instead of participating in the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children program in 2024”.
Email communication with Greene County Community School (GCCS) superintendent Brett Abbotts states that about 300 students were served last summer in Scranton, Grand Junction, Rippey, and Jefferson. Meals are typically sack lunches, including a sandwich, snack, milk, or water. In Rippey I have observed the meals being distributed to about 25 students. They are delivered by car and given out on the lawn in front of the Rippey library.
The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is authorized by the State of Iowa allowing the Nutrition (federal dollars) fund to pay for the lunches for students and then receive reimbursement for the cost, according to superintendent Abbotts. He was pleased to share that the governor’s opting out of the EBT cards will not impact the Summer Food Service Program.
Abbotts reports that about 43 percent of the student body currently qualifies for free and reduced lunches. He believes the actual number eligible may be in the 50-55 percent range. The 43 percent does qualify Greene County Schools to apply for and receive the Community Eligibility Provisions (CEP) grant. This will allow breakfast and lunch to be served to ALL students at virtually no cost to any student. More information will be available about this service in the future.
It is sad this decision to abstain from accepting funding to provide food for low-income families and their children is so partisan. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that Arizona, California, Kansas, Minnesota, and West Virginia will be participating in the Summer EBT. These states all have Democrat governors.
Mary Weaver writes VIEW FROM MY WINDOW, from her rural home near Rippey.
