First, not every state participates. This is free money that states could use to feed hungry kids, and some states are just like “nah, fuck them kids.”

Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont and Wyoming.

The program requires states to pay half of the administrative costs - not the benefit itself, just the costs associated with distributing the benefit.

The federal free lunch program would have brought $18,000,000 to the state, at a total cost of $300,000 to the state. The governor refused the program, saying “I don’t believe in welfare.”

Nebraska receives $1,100,000,000 per year in agricultural subsidies. He doesn’t have a problem taking federal dollars to feed pigs, but kids are on their own.