{"id":2288,"date":"2024-04-29T13:10:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T18:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=2288"},"modified":"2024-04-29T13:10:06","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T18:10:06","slug":"iowa-governor-reynolds-poor-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=2288","title":{"rendered":"Iowa Governor Reynolds’ “Poor” Math"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Last December, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds turned down $29 million of federal funding that would have provided a low-income family $40 per month \u201cto help with food costs\u201d during the 3-month break in the school year. Her justification for snubbing the federal money was a cruel accusation that Iowa children are fat and that \u201cchildhood obesity has become an epidemic.\u201d But let\u2019s not have facts get in the way. Or, the lack of facts, thereof.<\/p>\n

Erica Kenney, an assistant professor at Harvard University\u2019s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said \u201cthere is no evidence that a program like this has anything to do with childhood obesity. It\u2019s absolutely true you can have obesity and be struggling to get food on the table for your family. It is not all true that helping people who are struggling financially means they\u2019re going to eat more and gain weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s heart may be in the \u201cright\u201d place when she claims that the $40 per month will not \u201cpromote nutrition,\u201d but it\u2019s not like the family receiving the assistance will give the EBT card to the kid so that the child can run down to Candyland and splurge on Mountain Dew and KitKat bars.<\/p>\n

For someone who is family-oriented with parental rights at the forefront, the governor\u2019s contradiction of total government control over the food choices of families is beyond flagrant.<\/p>\n

Reynolds rejected the $29 million deal claiming that it would cost the state $2.2 million in administration fees. However, State Senator Sarah Trone Garriott questions that amount since it costs Iowa $2.2 million in shared administrative costs to run the entire Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the whole state.\u201d\u00a0 Moreover, the $900,000 for grants is a 15% increase in the already $6 million of federal money that was used by Iowa last year to fund the Summer Food Service Program. And supposedly, the money is for administrative purposes as well as money for healthy protein, veggies and fruits.<\/p>\n

Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack estimates Reynold\u2019s rejection last December means \u201cIowa will take a $100 million economic hit. The federal assistance \u201crolls around\u201d in the economy, creating jobs at grocery stores and other businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s do the math: the program that was rejected by Reynolds would provide $40 per month per child for three months; that\u2019s $120 per summer per child. That doesn\u2019t seem like a lot, but with several children at home during the summer parents can determine which foods to buy with the extended SNAP dollars. Without subtracting administration costs, that would assist 241,666 children in Iowa. Using Gov. Reynold\u2019s Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option, which is nothing more than a continuation of free breakfasts and lunches provided by the federal government, not every child who received free meal in school will be able to participate. There are two reasons for this. First, over one-third of Iowa\u2019s counties had either no meal sites or one meal site per county in 2023. Second, there are three options to the plan.<\/p>\n

If operating a congregate meal, federal regulations require that parents and caregivers cannot pick up meals for their children, and \u201call meals must be consumed on-site.\u201d However, a child may take \u201cone fruit, vegetable, or grain item from their meal off-site to eat later.\u201d According to the government website, a \u201ctypical lunch, for example, could include a [cold] turkey sandwich on wheat bread, milk, and apple, and a salad.<\/p>\n

Another option is that the program is free to all children who attend camp, which is not defined, but most likely includes Vacation Bible School.<\/p>\n

The third option is a non-congregate site where meals may be offered \u201cto-go,\u201d where a recipient or parent may pick-up the meal, or possibly delivered. How this differs from the first option is not explained.<\/p>\n

All options for new meal site under the grant \u201cmust be located in an area where at least 50 percent or more of the children are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.\u201d<\/p>\n

A huge problem with Reynold\u2019s program is that many adolescents sleep in during the summer. Having to be at a congregate site at a certain time will cause many teens and pre-teens to miss the most important meal of the day \u2013 breakfast. The program rejected by Iowa would have provided a breakfast meal at home. No walking in the rain, the sun, and scorching heat.<\/p>\n

The Seamless Summer Option is a political response to an apparent uproar over criticism that the governor cares little about feeding hungry children.<\/p>\n

This is a program that should be audited in the Fall. However, since this administration has tied the hands of Iowa\u2019s Auditor, duct-taped his mouth shut and blindfolded his eyes, don\u2019t count on that happening.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

This article first appeared in the April 2024 issue of the Prairie Progressive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Last December, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds turned down $29 million of federal funding that would have provided a low-income family $40 per month \u201cto help with food costs\u201d during the 3-month break in the school year. Her justification for snubbing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264,17],"tags":[1213,1214,1007,1215,1218,1217,1216,452],"class_list":["post-2288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fairness","category-issues","tag-erica-kenney","tag-harvard-universitys-t-h-chan-school-of-public-health","tag-iowa-governor-reynolds","tag-iowa-state-senator-sarah-trone-garriott","tag-seamless-summer-option","tag-summer-food-service-program","tag-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap","tag-tom-vilsack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2289,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288\/revisions\/2289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}