Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 8
Nebraska’s governor announced this week that the state would accept federal dollars to help feed children from low-income families, breaking away from the more than a dozen other Republican governors around the US who have refused to do so.
Just last month, Jim Pillen joined 14 other Republican governors in opting not to enroll in Summer EBT, a new federal food program that provides low-income families with a monthly payment of $40 per child during summer vacation. In participating states, families with children in free or reduced-price school lunch programs will get $40 per qualifying child on an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card throughout each of the three summer months. That money can be used to purchase groceries and food from farmers’ markets.
States were given until the end of 2023 to enroll, and they can enroll in the future even if they’ve skipped the year before. On 16 February, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) told Politico it would still allow states to apply even if they’d missed the enrollment deadlines.
“Even though states were asked to submit their notice of intent by January 1, USDA will consider every situation based on the specific circumstances,” a spokesperson, Allan Rodriguez, said in a statement. “We are committed to working with everyone to achieve our goal of nationwide implementation as quickly as possible. That includes those who are operationally ready to participate successfully in 2024 – as well as those that are working towards implementation in 2025.”
Pillen said his reversal stemmed from his recent conversations with low-income children in Nebraska.
“They talked about being hungry. And they talked about the summer USDA program and, depending upon access, when they’d get a sack of food,” Pillen said at a press conference this week. “And from my seat, what I saw there, we have to do better in Nebraska.”
The reversal was welcomed by the non-profit Nebraska Appleseed, which advocates for the end of childhood poverty and hunger in the state.
Savaiano said he and other childhood welfare advocates had anticipated Pillen’s hostility towards the food program, citing the governor’s pledge to reduce state spending by 3% by the end of this fiscal year, followed by another 6% by the end of 2025.
“So the small investment that it would take to bring a program like this into the state might have been a non-starter for him,” Savaiano said.
Source: The Guardian
