DES Moines, Iowa — The State of Iowa has officially decided to pass on participating in Summer EBT again this year.
The Iowa Hunger Coalition said the Sun Bucks program would provide $120 dollars to nearly 245,000 low-income students in Iowa while school is out for the summer.
However, the state is still pushing a feeding demonstration project instead, even though the USDA already shot the state’s proposal down in November.
“So, right now food banks, food pantries other emergency feeding organizations are facing record breaking levels of need,” Iowa Hunger Coalition Chair Luke Elzinga said.
Iowa had until January 1st to submit a letter of intent for Summer EBT. Instead, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services sent over the state’s intention to re-submit a waiver request for its feeding demonstration project proposal to the new Trump Administration in early 2025.
“The state’s alternative approach to addressing nutrition and food insecurity for Iowa’s children and families will meet the unique needs of our state by expanding eligibility beyond what is offered by SUN Bucks, providing more food and better nutrition at a lower cost and leveraging an already established statewide network of summer feeding programs and partners, including food pantries,” a spokesperson for Iowa HHS said.
The Iowa Hunger Coalition argued the state’s proposal should complement Summer EBT instead of replacing it, citing concerns about the consequences for opting out in a time of record need.
“This Summer 2025 we’re gonna see a lot of stories of food pantries experiencing record more increases during the summer months,” Elzinga said. “It would be really great to have this program in place to provide assistance not only to those children and families that are struggling to put food on the table, but to the state’s nonprofits, emergency feeding organizations that are working hard everyday to make sure no Iowan goes without food.”
Now, the Iowa Hunger Coalition is planning to push this legislative session for a bill to require the state to participate in Summer EBT, calling on Governor Reynolds and legislators to focus on addressing food insecurity.
“So I think we’ve been effective at finding bipartisan champions getting bipartisan legislation introduced as it relates to free school meals, double up food bucks, SNAP,” Elzinga said. “But what we have not seen is the willingness from leadership to prioritize those to get them across the finish line.”
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