GOP governor slashing food program for kids ahead of Christmas sparks fury

Republican Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds announced a few days before Christmas that her state would not participate in a summer federal food program for impoverished children, which has prompted backlash online.

Reynolds, who has served as the governor of the Hawkeye State since 2017, announced on Friday that Iowa would not be joining other states in the federal 2024 Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children (EBT) program, which provides low-income families with $40 per child per month to help with food costs while schools are closed, the Associated Press reported. Over 200,000 children in the state would qualify under the program.

In a joint statement from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education, Reynolds explained her reasoning.

“Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families,” the governor said said. “An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic. If the Biden Administration and Congress want to make a real commitment to family well-being, they should invest in already existing programs and infrastructure at the state level and give us the flexibility to tailor them to our state’s needs.”

Reynolds’ announcement was, in turn, met with a considerable amount of scorn online, particularly given its proximity to Christmas. Several social media users took to X, the platform previously known as Twitter, to vent their frustrations with Reynolds.

“Merry Christmas from Kim Reynolds!!” a post from the official Drake University Democrats account read. “She is declining $29 million from the feds that would help feed 240,000 Iowa kids! She is actively making children go hungry. She’ll go down in history as one of the worst Iowa governors. No wonder she’s the most unpopular US governor. Coward.”

A July survey from Morning Consult found that Reynolds had a 54 percent approval rating and a 42 percent disapproval rating. While in the survey’s lower half, she still outranked several other prominent governors, including Republicans like Greg Abbott of Texas and Tate Reeves of Mississippi.

“Right-wing Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds had the audacity to cite child obesity as she defended her decision to deprive poor kids of food,” author and journalist Mark Jacob wrote in his own post.

“Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds won’t provide free lunches to Iowa children but she will have them working in dangerous jobs in violation of federal child labor laws,” political scientist David Darmofal wrote.

Newsweek reached out to Reynolds’ office via email for comment.

Darmofal’s post made reference to the Republican-led Iowa government’s recent efforts to expand the state’s parameters for underage workers, a trend seen among other GOP-led states, which has been widely condemned by critics as an effort to weaken child labor laws.

As explained in a September post from the Iowa Senate Democratic Party, certain aspects of this expansion violate federal child labor laws, specifically those allowing “16- and 17-year-olds to operate dangerous power-driven machines, engage in heavy manufacturing, and work in demolition,” and not requiring “16- and 17-year-olds working in apprenticeship or student-learner roles to be registered by the U.S. Department of Labor or a state agency.”