DES MOINES, Iowa — Just months after declining to participate in the 2024 summer P-EBT program, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Education have announced a new grant program to help feed school-aged kids this summer.
The Summer Meal Program Expansion Grant provides $900,000 in grants for school districts, private nonprofits, faith-based organizations, local government agencies and more through the existing Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option.
The grants will allow those existing programs and their sponsors to launch more summer meal sites across the state.
“Through partnerships with community-based providers and schools, the Summer Meal Program Expansion Grant will build upon family-focused solutions to support child nutrition and well-being in the summer,” Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow said in a statement.
Since the governor announced she would reject federal summer P-EBT funding back in January, advocates have been concerned with the decision.
"It does no good to leave kids hungry when there's money waiting to be used just for that purpose," said Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-Windsor Heights.
The Polk County Board of Supervisors claims more than 20,000 students in DMPS benefit from the program.
Former Iowa governor and current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack responded to a January letter from the Polk County Board of Supervisors asking for the USDA to continue administering P-EBT funding in the county,
Vilsack clarified the USDA said the law prohibits them from working with individual counties and that the only way for the funding to reach Iowa's public schools would be through Reynolds.
“If we do a better job of making sure that governors who have been reluctant understand the significance of this ... maybe governors will change their mind," he told Local 5.
Reynolds said she chose to support existing programs like Seamless Summer Option rather than receive funding because of nutritional quality preferences.
“Providing young Iowans with access to free, nutritious meals in their communities during the summer months has always been a priority,” Reynolds said in a Wednesday statement. “With the Summer Meal Program Expansion Grant, we will expand these well-established programs across our state to ensure Iowa’s youth have meals that are healthy and use local community farms and vendors when possible.”
Applications for the grant program are available at this link. Interested sponsors must apply by Tuesday, May 7 at 11:59 p.m.