Iowa will not participate in a federal program that gives $40 per month to each child in a low-income family over the summer to help with food costs while school is out.

Iowa will not participate this summer in a federal program that gives $40 per month to each child in a low-income family to help with food costs while school is out, state officials have announced.

The state has notified the U.S. Department of Agriculture that it will not participate in the 2024 Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children — or Summer EBT — program, the state’s Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education said in a Friday news release.

“Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families. An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic,” Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said in the news release.

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A bipartisan group of Nebraska lawmakers have urged the state to reconsider, saying Summer EBT would address the needs of vulnerable children and benefit the state economically, the Journal Star reported.

  • partial_accumen
    70•6 months ago

    “Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families."

    “…so instead we the GOP are going to replace this unsustainable program with nothing making a future problem a problem of today!” /s

    “An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic,” Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said in the news release.”

    “While yes, EBT card is useful to buy all kinds of healthy food such as fresh produce, staples such as beans and rice, as well as great protein choices such as chicken, pork or beef, you may not be aware that EBT card can also buy sugar! And, you may not be aware, its possible for someone to consume enough sugar to gain weight. Therefore the GOP solution is to remove the EBT card which grants access to this sugar (as well as all the other food). By doing this those children that are overweight will effectively be put on a starvation diet where their bodies will slowly first digest their body’s muscle and put their liver at risk by forcing ketosis. Those children that don’t happen to be overweight, and will suffer tremendously, should have thought about that before they let all their peers eat too much.” /s

    • @MotoAsh
      15•6 months ago

      I mean… do you need the /s when you’re just de-politicizing the language and not changing the message?

    • @lemmylommy
      9•6 months ago

      Can’t have kids eating sugar, they will get fat. Also, let’s give subsidize corn farming some more.