Iowa rejects millions in federal summer food aid for children

Iowa will turn down federal funding to pay for summer food aid to children, opting instead for a state-funded program officials say will provide better nutrition and avoid spending $2.2 million a year on administration.

Family advocates decried the decision, announced Friday, and questioned the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services’ estimate of costs for running the three-month program.

“It’s a huge loss for Iowa,” said state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines. “If we’re talking 20-some million (dollars) coming from the federal government, I don’t think the state is going to be matching that. They are just going to be leaving it to the charities to make up the difference.”

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Summer EBT, started during the COVID-19 pandemic and slated to become permanent in 2024, provides low-income children with $40 per month in benefits during the three months of the summer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture covers the cost of the benefits, but states must pay for half of administrative costs.

States have until Jan. 1 to notify the USDA if they want to provide Summer EBT next summer. Iowa announced its decision to bypass federal funding Friday.

“Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families,” Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement. “An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.”

Instead, Iowa will continue to support Iowa children eligible for food assistance year-round by enhancing and expanding already existing childhood nutrition programs, she said.

“HHS and the Department of Education have well-established programs in place that leverage partnerships with community-based providers and schools who understand the needs of the families they serve,’ Reynolds said. ”If the Biden Administration and Congress want to make a real commitment to family well-being, they should invest in already existing programs and infrastructure at the state level and give us the flexibility to tailor them to our state’s needs.”

Trone Garriott said she did not know how Health and Human Services determined the state’s share of administrative costs for the Summer EBT program would be $2.2 million.

“It costs our state $2.2 million in shared administrative costs to run the entire SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) for the whole state,” she said.

Trone Garriott is a Lutheran pastor and coordinator of interfaith engagement for the Des Moines Area Religious Council Food Pantry Network, which provided 26,469 unique individuals a three-day supply of food in November, she said. The Iowa senator said she recently visited a food bank in Humboldt, in Northwest Iowa, that was running out of food.

“We are in a food insecurity crisis in Iowa,” she said.

Of the 132,000 Iowa households currently enrolled in SNAP, 41.5 percent have children in the home, the Iowa human services agency reported. SNAP enrollment has declined, down from over 150,000 households in 2020 to 132,000 for 2024, the agency said.

Last summer, more than 1.6 million meals and snacks were served to children 18 and younger throughout Iowa as part of the Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option program.

“Funded through the USDA and administered by the Iowa Department of Education, each of the 500-plus meal sites in low-income areas across Iowa are run by local sponsors to ensure children can get nutritious meals during the summer at no cost in a safe and supervised environment,“ the Iowa agency reported.

This isn’t the first time the Reynolds administration has snubbed federal funding from the Democratic administration.

In April, Iowa announced it would not seek $3 million in federal climate planning money. Instead, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency authorized agencies in the Corridor and around Central Iowa to seek the money. Reynolds also rejected $95 million for COVID-19 testing in schools in 2021 that was part of the American Rescue Plan Act.

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