The USDA has rejected Governor Kim Reynolds’ plan to provide monthly boxes of food to low-income households with school-aged children, rather than a monthly stipend for purchasing groceries next summer. Reynolds says she will now reapply to the Trump Administration for permission to start the project. Reynolds has said it would feed more children because the state could buy the food at wholesale prices.
Reynolds said many low-income families lack the transportation to get to a store that sells groceries at reasonable prices and her proposal would address that by setting up a distribution system for the boxed-up food.
The USDA has notified state officials the governor’s plan does not fit the guidelines for its summer feeding initiative. The SUN Bucks program has provided low-income families with an extra 120-dollars per school aged child via a government-issued debit card. Iowa Hunger Coalition Chair Luke Elzinga says state officials are basically saying they don’t want to participate in the program, but want to spend the money.
Elzinga is encouraging Iowans to lobby the governor to accept the USDA’s guidelines. John Boller is executive director of the Coralville Community Food Pantry. He says direct federal assistance to parents has reduced childhood food insecurity in states that accepted the SUN Bucks funding.
This past summer, Reynolds turned down 29 million dollars in summer food assistance for Iowa children who qualify for free or reduced price lunch at school. She used 900-thousand dollars of pandemic relief money instead to set up summer meal sites around the state.
