Statement on Iowa’s Decision on Summer EBT in 2025

Today the state of Iowa submitted a waiver to the USDA intending to create a new summer feeding demonstration project in Iowa for Summer 2025. The Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC) has continued to advocate for additional solutions to address summer hunger as we see record need in our community and across the state.

This program would be another tool to help address the needs of the tens of thousands of children and remove barriers for those struggling to meet their needs. We are excited to see the state of Iowa is seeking solutions to summer hunger, a problem we know is not going away, and we look forward to working together at this critical juncture. However, we acknowledge that this is just one more piece to the puzzle in addressing our neighbors’ needs. SUN Bucks (Summer EBT) is a proven solution to helping families purchase healthy food that meets their household’s needs. Nutritional options should never be out of reach for the children in a state like Iowa.

While there is some uncertainty around what next summer might bring, the urgency to address the record level of need we are seeing today remains.  Just last month, a record 10,107 children (ages 0-17) received food from a DMARC pantry, and a growing group of nearly 900 of those children are doing so for the first time. Our organization is doing everything in our power to try and adjust to this ‘new normal’ and we will continue to advocate for the best solutions for our neighbors.

Summer hunger will unfortunately continue to be a reality for the children in this community and we shouldn’t leave any options on the table that address it. Organizations like ours can’t do this work alone. We look forward to meeting this growing challenge and finding more solutions alongside the leaders in our state.  

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