It would have helped an estimated 63, South Dakota children receive healthy food during summer The U. Congress recently approved it as a permanent program. The extension was seen as a victory for families and groups that advocate policies to keep children fed. Rather than requiring families or children to travel to specific meal sites to get food, the P-EBT program provides payment cards to families so they can purchase eligible healthy foods at any participating store at any time.
The offices of Gov. That decision drew the ire of Sioux Falls advocate Cathy Brechtelsbauer, who has fought hunger for decades as leader of the organization Bread for the World. Noem spokesman Ian Fury did not provide News Watch an interview with the governor but did send an email with a statement.
When asked to explain the administrative challenges surrounding the program, Department of Education spokeswoman Nancy Van Der Weide said the state found it difficult to obtain enough information about children to administer the program effectively, even though the state did participate in Pandemic EBT in and This made it very difficult for the state government to get enough details to adequately administer the program.
Brechtelsbauer was shocked that the state was rejecting federal money based on perceived challenges in administering the program. Van Der Weide pointed out that the South Dakota Summer Food Service Program provided children with more than , meals and about 20, snacks at 83 disbursement sites during summer Feeding South Dakota provided about 8, meals to children in Sioux Falls and Rapid City through its backpack program over 10 weeks this summer.
It also offered food to needy people in 91 other communities through monthly visits by its mobile food unit, according to Stacey Andernacht, communications director for the nonprofit. Finding the money to afford healthy food, at a time when prices for food and fuel are on the rise, is difficult everywhere but especially challenging in rural and reservation areas of the state, Andernacht told News Watch in an email.
