What kind of state turns down help feeding hungry kids?

When American soldiers during World War II were asked what they were fighting for, a popular answer was “mom and apple pie.” Not many would disagree that feeding hungry kids is another cherished value that’s high on the list.

Until last week, I’d never heard of summer school lunch programs compared to weapons, nor considered providing nutritious food to children as welfare. Yet both were cited by Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder when she explained why the state isn’t participating in a federal program to fight hunger.

“I will not let the Biden Administration weaponize summer school lunch programs to justify a new welfare program,” she wrote in an email to WyoFile. “Thanks, but no thanks. We will continue to combat childhood hunger the Wyoming way.”

The older I get, the less tolerant I am of elected public officials who say terrible things just to score cheap political points. What Degenfelder said can’t go unchallenged or be forgotten at election time. It’s one of the most callous explanations I’ve ever heard from a Wyoming politician.

Unfortunately, her view is shared by officials in 14 other states: Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Vermont.

Can you guess what these states also have in common? All are led by Republican governors, just like the 10 GOP states that have refused to expand Medicaid and reduce the number of adults who don’t have health insurance.

Providing essentials like food and health care shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, independent or apolitical, it has no bearing on the universal responsibility of a society to feed hungry children.

The new Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program could help feed an estimated 32,000 Wyoming children when they are out of school, with about $3.8 million in benefits distributed to struggling families. The state would pay half of the administrative cost, which is still undetermined, but everything else would be covered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Based on a USDA analysis of the food stamp program, Wyoming could expect an economic impact of up to $6.9 million from the Summer EBT.

I’ve got to hand it to Degenfelder: she managed to squeeze a whole lot of GOP talking points about poverty into one short paragraph. She blasted Democrats for wanting to spend millions here to supposedly provide welfare handouts to lazy families that don’t deserve government assistance.

Who’s the target of all this federal weaponization, anyway? According to the superintendent, it’s courageous red states that are committed to cutting wasteful spending and refusing to comply with burdensome federal demands.

Degenfelder topped it off with a familiar refrain, that we must look for a solution to child hunger that represents the good old “Wyoming way.” 

We’ve been searching for that same elusive state fix to help improve our health care system for more than a decade. The Legislature insists the federal government can’t be trusted to pay to expand Medicaid for low-income workers, even though Washington has never reneged on picking up 90% of the costs in the 40 states that signed up. Meanwhile, lawmakers here are no closer to developing a “Wyoming way” for health care than they were 10 years ago.

It doesn’t matter to Degenfelder that hard-working Wyomingites have already paid federal taxes to participate in such programs. She wants the feds to just get out of our way so we can help our own people.

Never mind that Wyoming readily accepts nearly every federal dollar offered to it. Our dependence on the federal government tops the nation, with 56% of state government revenue coming from the feds.

Wyoming relies on a patchwork of federal, state and local programs to make nutritious food available when school isn’t in session. One is the federally assisted Summer Food Service program, which benefits kids by opening special sites at schools, camps and other places where they can get lunch.

It’s a worthwhile program. The food is distributed to kids 18 or younger, without eligibility requirements. Last summer, it operated in 31 communities in 16 of the state’s 23 counties.

Still, it doesn’t reach every student who needs food. Children whose parents or guardians can’t leave their jobs to drive them to and from a mid-day lunch site are left out. It favors urban families over rural ones.

The new Summer EBT program has the potential to greatly expand food assistance offered in Wyoming.

Families with children eligible to receive free or reduced-price school lunches would get a benefits card with $120 per child this summer that can be used at grocery stores, farmers markets or other authorized retailers. The cards, like food stamps, could be conveniently used throughout the state.

The USDA estimates it will spend $2.5 billion on grocery benefits this summer in 35 states, five territories and four Native American tribes. The Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes in Wyoming declined to join.

While Degenfelder and others have tried to politicize the program, it was part of a bipartisan budget agreement in 2022. A USDA report on a 2010-16 demonstration project concluded the number of kids with very low food security decreased by about one-third. Not surprisingly, children benefited from healthier diets.

Degenfelder told WyoFile she plans to make the state’s existing summer program more accessible to students, no matter where they live. Wyoming must hold her to that promise.

It was Degenfelder who explained this decision in Wyoming, but in other states, it was governors who made the call. Curiously, when WyoFile reporter Katie Klingsporn asked Gov. Mark Gordon why Wyoming wasn’t participating, he referred her to Degenfelder.

Why was the state’s school chief speaking out about rejecting Summer EBT? It’s an odd move by the governor since First Lady Jennie Gordon has made fighting food insecurity a top priority with her Wyoming Hunger Initiative.

Klingsporn received a statement from Jennie Gordon’s spokesperson explaining that the first lady’s initiative “does not accept state or federal funding, and defers to state and federal agencies for the development and implementation of those government programs.”

The Wyoming Hunger Initiative doesn’t speak on behalf of the state, and it’s within Gordon’s authority to let federal funds flow to worthy programs.

There’s a backlash from food program administrators and lawmakers in several of the 15 states that won’t offer Summer EBT, and Wyoming should join the movement.

Stacy Stebner, director of the Lander Care and Share Food Bank, said it served around 1,000 people per month before COVID-19. Since the health emergency ended, its services are now used monthly by 1,500 to 1,800.

“There’s already so much pressure on the nonprofit sector to fill the gap between what people need to survive and what they can afford,” Stebner added.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen opted out of the program, but a bipartisan group of state senators wants to reverse his decision by passing a bill. States had to opt-in by Jan. 1, but the deadline for a final decision has been extended until Feb. 15.

Unfortunately for Wyoming, that falls three days after the start of the Legislature’s budget session, so it’s out of lawmakers’ hands for this year.

But Gordon still has until mid-February to say “we’re in,” and help the 11.4% of Wyoming households the USDA estimates must deal with “food insecurity.”

Thirty-five state chief executives have already made that call, and I’ll bet none of them are being bombarded by angry voters complaining that poor, hungry kids are being fed, even if it’s the dang feds that are doing it.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect the Wyoming Hunger Initiative statement came from Jennie Gordon’s spokesperson. -Ed.