Aug 23, 2024

Reynolds lobbying for USDA waiver for distributing food to needy next summer

Posted Aug 23, 2024 4:40 PM

(Radio Iowa) - Governor Kim Reynolds says she has not opted out of a federal program to provide food to needy Iowa child next summer, she's just waiting to see if the U-S-D-A will let her use the money to set up a new system in Iowa for distributing it.

Iowa was one of 13 states that did not participate in THIS summer's U-S-D-A program which provided families with an extra 140 dollars in grocery money for each child who qualifies for free or reduced price school lunches.

Reynolds has drawn up a plan to distribute the 29 million dollars in benefits by having the state buy the food and box it up. She says boxes would be distributed by the 12-hundred food banks and food pantries in Iowa as well as the 500 sites, mostly schools, that provided summer meals this summer.