Kemp draws heat for refusing federal funds for student summer meals
ATLANTA – Legislative Democrats have urged Gov. Brian Kemp to accept federal funding for a program that provides low-income children with free meals during the summer when school is not in session.
Georgia is one of 12 states that did not participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer EBT Program this summer and isn’t planning to participate next summer. The state faces a Thursday deadline to commit to the program.
“I’m enraged that Gov. Kemp is choosing to disregard the needs of some of the most vulnerable families in Georgia,” U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, said. “The state has to do better.”
The Summer EBT Program provides pre-loaded cards worth $40 a month to families with eligible school-aged children, totaling $120 for the months school is not in session.
Georgia suffers from one of the nation’s highest rates of food insecurity, state Sen. Jason Esteves, D-Atlanta, a former teacher and former member of the Atlanta Board of Education, said.
“In some counties, one in four children lives in food-insecure households,” he said. “Sixty-four percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.”
McBath and the other six Democrats in Georgia’s congressional delegation sent a letter last week asking Kemp to change his mind about opting out of the federal program.
On Tuelanta Board of Education,sday, a spokesman for the governor cited the program’s cost to the state, $4.5 million a year, to cover 50% of the administrative expense.
“While it is disappointing that the Biden administration continues to ignore reasonable concerns surrounding the program’s lack of nutrition standards and fiscal sustainability, we will continue to promote the many successful programs Georgia already has in place,” Garrison Douglas said.
The state Department of Education’s Seamless Summer program provided more than 2.5 million breakfasts and more than 3.2 million lunches in 2023, with the majority of school districts participating. Another state program, Happy Helpings, served 2.8 million meals at 997 sites in 2023.
But children in 59 of Georgia’s 159 counties did not have access to a Happy Helpings summer meal site last year, the congressional Democrats wrote in their letter to Kemp, citing numbers from the state Department of Early Care and Learning.
