DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa on Thursday proposed an alternative program to address child hunger during next summer’s summer vacation. The state says the plan could leverage existing community-driven infrastructure and prioritize nutrition. But critics say it takes resources and agency away from low-income families.
Iowa and other states have withdrawn of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer EBT program in 2024, which provided low-income families with $120 per school-age child for groceries during the summer months.
According to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, more than 244,000 children were issued an EBT card for the pandemic summer in 2023, generating more than $29 million in federal funds.
Iowa instead spent $900,000 on competitive grants which resulted in 61 new locations for other federal nutrition programs that support schools and nonprofits in low-income areas in serving summer meals and snacks to children.
Next year, Iowa plans to drop the EBT option and instead offer grocery boxes during each of the three summer months. Kelly Garcia, director of the state’s Health and Human Services Agency, said the proposal would allow Iowa to buy in bulk to stretch program dollars, offset inflationary costs for families, choose nutritious foods to fill boxes and increase the number of families eligible.
“The complex problems of food insecurity and obesity cannot be solved with financial benefits that do not actively promote health and nutritious diets and do not reach all Iowa children in need,” said Kelly Garcia, director of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.
But the new approach has done little to convince critics, particularly Democrats who have long criticized Reynolds for rejecting such a large sum of money intended to feed Iowa children. That includes Sen. Sarah Trone-Garriott, who works with the Des Moines Area Religious Council Food Pantry Network and helped run its grocery box program during the pandemic.
Trone-Garriott said the proposal would require a cumbersome volunteer effort that would be less effective than offering families the funds to use at their local grocery stores, where they already go. The federal program has been effective in alleviating the intense need, which she said has shifted to record-high demand at local food banks this summer.
“It’s not very accessible,” she said. “It’s this idea that we can’t trust people who are struggling financially to make good choices.”
Garcia told USDA administrators in a letter Thursday that Iowa was not participating in the 2024 EBT program due to “operational redundancy with existing programs, high administrative costs for states, and lack of focus on nutrition.”
States participating in the program must cover half of the administrative costs, which in Iowa cost an estimated $2.2 million, the state said last year.
Officials did not specify Thursday how much the new program would cost or how much federal funding they expect.
Iowa is proposing that low-income families can pick up their summer grocery boxes, or families with transportation issues can have them delivered. The state said delivery is a convenience not offered under the existing EBT program, but did not provide details on how many families would be able to choose that option, or how delivery would be facilitated statewide.
