Having turned down $29M from feds, Gov. Reynolds announces $900K summer meal program for children

DES MOINES — More than three months after turning down $29 million in federal funding for low-income families to spend on food for their school-aged children in the summer, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Wednesday a $900,000 grant program with similar goals.

In December, Reynolds announced the state will not participate in the federal Summer EBT program, which provides low-income families with $40 per month in benefits during over three months.

That program started during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency and now is being made permanent. It was designed to provide free meals in the summer months to students from low-income families who receive free or reduced-price meals during the school year.

States were given the option of remaining in the program. Iowa was among 17 states, nearly all with Republican governors, that declined. Reynolds at the time said she believed the program was not sustainable and did not promote nutrition.

The new state grant program is being funded by federal pandemic relief funds. It is designed to create additional summer meal sites that will serve more children in currently underserved areas across the state, the governor’s office said in a news release.

“Providing young Iowans with access to free, nutritious meals in their communities during the summer months has always been a priority,” Reynolds said in a statement. “With the Summer Meal Program Expansion Grant, we will expand these well-established programs across our state to ensure Iowa’s youth have meals that are healthy and use local community farms and vendors when possible.”

The number of eligible applicants and their proposals will determine the number and amount of grants awarded across the state, the governor’s office said.

The grants will help school districts and other qualified organizations expand participation in two current federal summer child nutrition programs — the Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option. Those programs are administered by the Iowa Department of Education in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Qualifying schools can participate in either federal program, and private nonprofit organizations, community and faith-based organizations, higher education institutions and local government agencies will be eligible to participate in the Summer Food Service Program, the governor’s office said.

New meal sites must be located in an area where at least 50 percent of the children are eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The meals can be served at schools, churches, parks, libraries and other public spaces, according to the governor’s office.

Luke Elzinga, board chair of the Iowa Hunger Coalition, said the daily average participation at summer meal sites in Iowa in 2023 was 21,557, which is less than 10 percent of the more than 245,000 Iowa children who would have received the $40 per month from the Summer EBT that Reynolds rejected.

“While we certainly welcome the new grant program to expand summer meal sites, we also recognize that barriers will remain for families to access those sites. Summer EBT is meant to complement, not replace, summer feeding sites,” Elzinga said in a statement.

“We truly hope this grant program increases access to nutritious food for low-income kids during the summer — but the fact remains that our governor chose to deny $29 million in federal funds that would go directly to low-income families with children who face additional financial struggles during the summer months when kids are out of school,” the statement continued.

Under the new state grant program, priority will be given to applicants seeking to establish a new meal site and to schools or organizations that did not participate in the federal programs last year or are in a county with two or fewer meal sites.

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Schools and organizations can apply for reimbursement funding for up to $10,000 for the first new site and $5,000 for each additional site, up to a total of $20,000 for current program sponsors and $30,000 for new sponsors.

“Through partnerships with community-based providers and schools, the Summer Meal Program Expansion Grant will build upon family-focused solutions to support child nutrition and well-being in the summer,” Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow said in a statement. “The Iowa Department of Education remains committed to supporting students with healthy meals and food options, as it supports communities in growing the impact of existing child nutrition programs.”

Statehouse Democrats continued Wednesday to express their disappointment that Reynolds declined the larger federal program.

“While I appreciate the governor finally doing something for hungry children in our state, the competitive grant program announced today amounts to crumbs for Iowa kids,” Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democrat from West Des Moines, said in a statement. “Gov. Reynolds could have accepted $29 million in federal food assistance that would’ve reached 240,000 children in every corner of the state. The $900,000 state program she announced today is tiny by comparison — and forces Iowa communities to compete for a sliver of that much-smaller pie. It’s not enough to meet the real needs facing our state. And it doesn’t make up for her decision to let Iowa kids go hungry.”

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Trone Garriott and Elzinga said the new state program does not account for some barriers to low-income families getting help from food assistance programs, like a lack of transportation to get to meal sites or who live in areas without meal sites.

“While summer feeding programs have their place, they are not accessible to all Iowa families,” Trone Garriott said. “Families must bring their children to and from the site every day, which is impossible for most working families. There are many Iowa school districts and entire counties that don’t even have a feeding site. As a result, these programs assisted less than 20,000 children last year.

“The governor could have expanded these programs and participated in the Summer EBT program. But instead, she put politics before the health and well-being of our kids.”

Applications for the new state program are being accepted at iowagrants.gov through May 7.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com