State faces criticism for rejecting funds

DES MOINES, IOWA>> Iowa is directing nearly a million dollars in grant funding to expand summer meal sites for low-income kids.

It is an effort that advocates welcome, but some remained worried that it won’t be enough to alleviate the barriers to access that were addressed by a separate federal program — providing approximately $29 million to Iowa’s lowincome families — that the state rejected.

The state is allocating $900,000 to schools and nonprofit organizations that participate in certain federal programs designed to serve summer meals and snacks in counties where at least 50% of children are eligible for free or reducedprice meals.

The state’s funding would be used to open new sites or to supplement existing sites’ expenses like local food purchases or community outreach.

Meg Brink, a registered dietician who consults on school food programs across the state, said the nutrition standards associated with these federal programs offer vital meals — and lessons on healthy diets — for students.

“If there’s any opportunity to provide students with good meals, good nutritious meals,” she said, “that’s a win.”

Last summer, the two programs provided approximately 1.6 million meals and snacks to Iowa’s youths, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Still, only about 22,000 kids were served, compared with the more than 362,000 kids who received free or reduced lunches in school.

The announcement Wednesday follows Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ decision not to participate in a separate federal program that gives $40 per month for three months to each child in a low-income family to help with food costs while school is out.

More than 244,000 children were provided the pandemic summer EBT cards in 2023, according to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, amounting to more than $29 million in federal funds.