Nation April 10, 2024, 6:26 PM EDT — Des Moines, Iowa (AP) Iowa is allocating nearly $1 million in grant cash to increase summer meal places for low-income children.
Advocates appreciate the initiative, but are concerned that it would not be sufficient to overcome the access restrictions addressed by a second federal programme — delivering approximately $29 million to Iowa’s low-income families — that the state rejected.
The state is contributing $900,000 to schools and charitable organisations that participate in federal programmes meant to provide summer meals and snacks in counties where at least half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
The state cash would be used to either establish new sites or boost existing sites’ expenses, such as local food purchases or community outreach.
According to USDA figures, the two programmes distributed approximately 1.6 million meals and snacks to Iowa youth last summer. Nonetheless, just around 22,000 children were fed, compared to the more than 362,000 students who got free or reduced lunches at school.
The statement Wednesday comes after Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds declined to participate in a different government programme that provides $40 per month for three months to each low-income child to help with food expenditures while school is out.
According to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, more than 244,000 children received pandemic summer EBT cards in 2023, totaling more than $29 million in federal funding.
Iowa is one of 14 states that declined federal funding for a range of philosophical and technological grounds.
