‘A dark day for Idaho kids’: Republicans reject $16M to feed children over the summer

Idaho senators voted down a program that could have helped feed more than 136,000 low-income kids this summer with millions of dollars in federal funding.

Far-right Republicans in the Senate argued the government should not be a charity and said they worried about families becoming reliant on welfare. More than two-thirds of the Senate voted against funding the meals.

For years, Idaho officials have waffled on their support for funding that would feed low-income children over the summer. The state budget for fiscal year 2025, which begins July 1, would have funneled more than $16 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to dole out the $120 benefit per school-aged child. The federal program requires the state to split the administrative costs of the program, which would have cost about $545,000.

Republicans on Thursday determined that was too much.

Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, said he thought rich kids could end up getting access to the funds. Families would be eligible for Summer EBT if they qualify for free or reduced price school meals or their household income is at or below 185% of the federal poverty level, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Those in support of the program said it would help feed children over the summer, when parents could have a more difficult time providing meals for their families.

The federal program is similar to one that began during the pandemic as part of an effort to reduce hunger over the summer when schools are out of session. Summer EBT is a new permanent program this year that President Joe Biden’s administration said will help better meet the needs of families and ensure kids don’t go hungry. There are more than 40,000 food-insecure children in Idaho, according to the Idaho Food Bank.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture separately expanded free summer meals at school to all students during the COVID-19 pandemic, which research from the Brookings Institute found improved math performance in some schools.

‘Kids don’t choose to go hungry’

Gov. Brad Little had asked lawmakers to approve almost $868,000 in state dollars to cover half of the administrative costs for the meals program. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare had asked for an additional full-time position to help administer the program. The legislative committee tasked with setting state budgets initially instead approved funding for a part-time position in the Department of Education to administer the program and approved $545,300 to cover administrative costs.

After the first budget died on the floor Thursday, the budget committee quickly convened and stripped the summer meals program and new part-time position.

Rep. Brooke Green, D-Boise, made a last-ditch effort to fully fund Little’s request to fund the meals program but was overruled by the committee’s Republican majority.

“I will always stand by ensuring that our children in my state of Idaho receive necessary nutrition over the summer,” she said in committee. “That’s all this program does.”

Denise Dixon, the executive director of the Idaho Hunger Relief Task Force, decried the vote and said few other programs in Idaho provide food for kids over the summer. It can be even more difficult to access that aid in rural areas.

This program is “extremely important with the high price of food right now and the lack of benefits available,” she said. “It’s a difference between there being food for them to eat in the summer, and not. That’s how important this program is. … Kids don’t choose to go hungry.”

Last year, Idaho turned down $15 million in federal funds for a similar children’s meal program, one of only a handful of states not to participate. The state also rejected federal funds that would have gone toward child care.

The State Department of Education declined to comment on the vote but said the department was awaiting “further clarity” on the programs’ future. A spokesperson for Little’s office declined to comment. The Department of Health and Welfare said it doesn’t comment on pending legislation, but said it requested summer EBT to be funded “because some Idaho children need food assistance when they’re not in school.”

“Idaho has gained embarrassing national attention for blocking kids from receiving summer EBT when a large majority of states have opted in,” a spokesperson for the Democratic caucus, Liam Brucker-Casey, said in an emailed statement. “This is a dark day for Idaho kids and families.”

Republican support dwindles

The budget to fund the meals program initially had Republican support when it left the Legislature’s budget committee earlier this month and made its way to the full chamber.

Most Republicans on the committee supported providing the funds over the objections of Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, who argued in a March 13 budget hearing that the initiative was a “massive new welfare program that families don’t need and Idaho can’t afford in the long run.” He said nothing in the program guarantees the funds will go to kids.

The committee voted to advance the budget to the floor by a 16-4 vote.

“We do have a serious problem with food shortage and especially in some of our urban areas, and I think it’s important that children are fed,” said Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise.“They can’t learn if they’re not fed and they can’t grow and mature the way they need to.”

Days later, Brian Almon, a conservative blogger affiliated with the Idaho Freedom Foundation, wrote about the EBT program in a post entitled “The Specter of Socialism.” Senators voted on the bill about two weeks later.

After Thursday’s vote, Almon penned another post, celebrating that “the forces of socialism and big government are not omnipotent.”

Almon told the Statesman in an email that he wasn’t sure if his column swayed any votes.

He said he understands other lawmakers’ concern for children.

“But I also agree that government was never meant to be a charity, and that programs like this only increase dependency,” he said.