Dubuque Telegraph Herald Summer food assistance

It’s good to see the state of Iowa making money available to support summer meal sites for kids, but the move renews questions about the wisdom of state officials’ decision declining to participate in a federal initiative to provide summer food assistance for children.

On Wednesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds unveiled the new Summer Meal Program Expansion Grant, which will provide $900,000 in grants to help schools and community programs expand existing child nutrition assistance programs. The program will be administered through the state education department and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“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,” Reynolds said in the news release.

Hard to argue with meals for kids in need.

But then again, it was the same governor who said no to the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children program for 2024. The USDA program, known as Summer EBT, provides families of children eligible for free or reduced-price meals at school with EBT cards, giving $40 of food assistance per child each month over the summer.

Just last month, Wisconsin became the first state to receive federal approval for the Summer EBT program, and some 35 states have moved to participate in the program.

Yet, Iowa Republicans were convinced there were better ways to feed kids. One concern they raised was the $2 million or so cost of implementing the program that the state would incur. Republicans also criticized the federal program for not limiting the EBT vouchers to being spent only on nutritious foods.