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Listener Douglas Tickner asks: 

I read in a story from last February that some states, all led by Republicans, turned down federal funding that would have helped their own low-income families to feed their kids. What happens to federal money when the states to which it has been allocated reject it?

Millions of low-income families began receiving $120 per child to pay for groceries this summer, as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new SUN Bucks program.

The federal government allocated $2.5 billion for the program, also known as summer EBT, this fiscal year. Even though the summer is over, states like Pennsylvania are still distributing benefits until the end of October. 

Thirty-seven received that federal funding, but 13 GOP-led states turned the money down, including Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas. 

States opted out due to a lack of administrative resources and funding, the existing programs they say already serve their residents, concerns over strings attached to federal money, timing constraints and ideological differences. 

“We’re sending the wrong message to parents and kids that we’re going to keep providing for everybody without needing something in return,” said Idaho State Senator Cindy Carlson. 

Funding for SUN bucks is part of a larger pool of money used for the USDA’s suite of child nutrition programs. SUN bucks will carry over into the program’s second year, and will eventually go back to the Treasury if they’re not used for other child nutrition programs, a USDA spokesperson said. 

“It’s just incredibly disappointing to see that money left on the table,” Luke Elzinga of the Iowa Hunger Coalition told Marketplace earlier this year. 

States had to fund half of the program’s administrative costs, like staffing, data management and postage. The federal government offered to cover the other half along with the benefits themselves. 

Maryland alone issued more than $70 million in grocery-related benefits, which helped feed 586,000 children, according to the governor’s office. The state spent $5.8 million on the program, reported Maryland Matters. 

“Summer can be the hungriest time for children,” said Kelsey Boone, senior children nutrition policy analyst at the Food Research & Action Center. “When the school year ends, millions of children lose access to school meals nationwide, and that childhood hunger can cause long-term physical, academic and emotional consequences.” 

The Pandemic EBT food program helped kids amid the COVID-19 crisis, but benefits ended last year. And other USDA summer nutrition programs don’t reach everyone. SUN Meals, for example, is only available at certain locations, like schools. 

Before the pandemic, summer nutrition programs served only 1 out of 7 children who rely on free or low-cost meals throughout the school year, according to FRAC. 

So if a state opts out of a program like SUN Bucks, Boone said kids don’t have that safety net.

Iowa would have needed an estimated $2.2 million to administer the program. But the USDA projected that families would have been able to receive almost $29 million in benefits as a result. 

Some states who had to pay similar costs still opted into the program. Kansas had to pay $1.9 million for their program, which is projected to provide $32 million in benefits to families. Iowa and Kansas each have a poverty rate of over 11%. 

Boone noted there are ways states can reduce the costs of the program. For example, they can apply for a $1 million-plus summer EBT technology grant from the USDA to build out the infrastructure needed to distribute SUN Bucks, she said. 

“We’re really hoping that states will realize this and be able to work through some of these issues,” Boone said. 

Tribal nations within states that rejected the funds were still able to participate. In Oklahoma, the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Muscogee Nations entered a partnership to provide benefits within their borders.

“We didn’t have very much time to prepare. We just had to really jump in and start doing it,” Melissa Stayathome, director of the Cherokee Nation Summer EBT program, told Marketplace earlier this year. 

Next year, some families that didn’t receive funds will get the chance to. Alabama, which opted out this summer, will participate in 2025. 

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