(December 21, 2023 at 2:04 pm)Fake Messiah Wrote: Imagine being offered $18 million… to feed kids… and saying no…..
Quote:Gov. Jim Pillen’s administration has decided that Nebraska won’t be participating in a new national child nutrition program that could have delivered an estimated $18 million in grocery-buying benefits next summer to kids and their families.
The decision comes despite a monthslong effort by food banks and other advocates to persuade the governor to opt into the Summer EBT program.
https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/12/20/...n-program/
Follow up on this:
Quote:The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Wednesday that nearly 21 million children will receive expanded grocery benefits this summer across all but 15 states.
[...]
Fifteen states did not opt into the program, with many Republican state officials saying that their state did not need the funds or that they did not have the capabilities to run this program.
Those states include Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont and Wyoming. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds ® suggested that the state did not need the program, pointing to high rates of childhood obesity as a reason why they should not expand grocery benefits for children.
“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,” Reynolds said in a statement.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch...-children/
