Lieutenant governor defends food bank funding veto

DES MOINES - Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds encouraged Iowans to donate to the Food Bank of Iowa on Monday, at the same time as she defended Gov. Terry Branstad's veto of $500,000 for the program.

Saying that campaigns for the Food Bank should be “privately led, publicly endorsed,” Reynolds said the Branstad administration has supported the program and even started it in 1983 during the farm crisis.

Her remarks came during the administration's weekly news conference, where she was joined by representatives of the Des Moines Symphony, the Food Bank of Iowa, Bank of the West and other sponsors of the Yankee Doodle Drive Against Hunger, which runs through July 4 in central Iowa.

Branstad killed a $500,000 appropriation for the Food Bank of Iowa by a line-item veto on May 25, with the money going back to the state's general fund.

In his veto message, Branstad wrote, “I strongly support the Food Bank of Iowa and their important work to help needy Iowans. In fact, I started (it) in the 1980s and annually lead a fund drive to help raise private donations for the Food Bank.”

Senate Democrats said the veto was a mistake.

Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, issued a statement shortly after the veto saying the $500,000 appropriation was “a thoughtful, fiscally responsible way” for the state to help the hungry.

“For a marginal investment of state resources, the Iowa Food Bank bill could have strengthened successful children's food programs, continued our efforts to ensure senior citizens can stay healthy and independent in their own homes and supported struggling families suffering from the worst recession since the Great Depression,” he said.

Carey Miller, executive director of the Food Bank of Iowa, who joined Reynolds at the news conference, said summer is a particularly hard time for the organization because children who depend on free and reduced-price lunches during the school year don't have the same access to meals during summer.

She said the organization is “happy for the support” it has received from the state.

Thirty-eight states have a state emergency food allocation; Iowa is one of a dozen that do not.