Declined twice by Wyoming, summer nutrition for hungry kids could gain traction in school recalibration
FROM WYOFILE:
‘Please don’t let it go away,’ First Lady Jennie Gordon said to lawmakers. ‘I ask on behalf of those 35,000 kids of Wyoming’ experiencing hunger.
For two years in a row, Wyoming elected officials have chosen not to participate in a federal program that helps feed income-qualified children during the summer months when they can’t get school meals.
First Lady Jennie Gordon hopes to break that streak.
“Here’s the reality,” Gordon told members of the Legislature’s Joint Education Committee earlier this month. “Thirty-five thousand of our kids who face food insecurity will do so in the summer … It’s not their fault, their families are struggling and can’t pay bills, and we can debate why that is or how we can get those families back on track, but in the meantime, those children should not be left [hungry].”
Gordon was making a pitch for the committee to take it up as an interim topic — which increases the chance for successful legislation on a subject. And this time, Gordon brought more weight. That’s because Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder — who railed against the federal assistance in the past as a welfare program in disguise — also supported lawmakers taking up the topic of childhood food insecurity during the interim session, or legislative off-season.
Degenfelder did not express specific support for the federal program, known as SUN Bucks. But, she said, childhood hunger is worth addressing.
“This is real,” Degenfelder told the lawmaker panel. “Our children are not able to learn properly, and we’re dealing with behavioral issues, because of hunger.”
The topic will be considered this summer, but not by the Education Committee. Instead, the Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration will wrap childhood nutrition into its work.
Every five years, that committee of lawmakers is tasked with “recalibrating” Wyoming’s funding model. The job entails a comprehensive review of how Wyoming funds education and what it offers students in its so-called “basket of goods,” or what is being taught. The process also determines how to best distribute that “basket of goods” to Wyoming schools.
It made more sense for the recalibration group to consider childhood nutrition to avoid redundancies, said Joint Education Committee Co-chair Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, who also sits on the Recalibration Committee.
Time is of the essence, said Gordon, who has put a major emphasis on fighting food insecurity with her Wyoming Hunger Initiative. More than 35,000 children statewide are on free or reduced lunches, she said, and there’s another 5,000 without access to the National School Lunch Program because their schools don’t offer it.
“Please don’t let it go away,” she told the Education Committee at the meeting. “Summer is coming.”
Support and skepticism
The Biden administration launched the USDA Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program, commonly known as SUN Bucks, in 2024.
The program, which aims at supplementing food needs during the months when kids don’t have access to school lunches, furnishes income-qualified families with a debit card loaded with $120 per student — or $40 per month. It can purchase fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy products, breads, cereals, snack foods and non-alcoholic drinks.
Though federal money pays for the program, participating states are tasked with costs and duties associated with administering it.
Summer electronic benefit transfers reduce child hunger and improve diet quality, according to evaluations of a multi-year demonstration project cited by the USDA. The project decreased the number of kids with very low food security by about one-third and supported healthier diets, USDA said.
Nationally, 37 states have signed on to SUN Bucks, including Montana, Utah, Colorado and Nebraska. Wyoming leaders, however, have been skeptical.
The first time Wyoming declined, Degenfelder blasted it as a welfare program mis-marketed as assistance for kids.
“I will not let the Biden administration weaponize summer school lunch programs to justify a new welfare program,” Degenfelder told WyoFile. “Thanks, but no thanks. We will continue to combat childhood hunger the Wyoming way.”
The second time, in February, lawmakers defeated House Bill 341, “Summer nutrition assistance for children,” which would have opted Wyoming into the program. Concerns included welfare fraud as well as the types of foods eligible families can buy; they include sugary sodas and highly processed snacks.
The bill would bring $3.8 million of federal benefit directly to local communities, Department of Family Services Director Korin Schmidt testified. It died in a 25-34 vote.
Renewed effort
In the wake of House Bill 341’s defeat, advocates and lawmakers hoped to bring the issue back to the table.
About 42% of Wyoming’s students are enrolled in free or reduced meals, a fact that Gordon said demonstrates a significant need. Hunger also has major implications for education.
“Like every mother and grandmother in Wyoming, I know what a hungry child is like,” Gordon told the Joint Education Committee. “They can’t think, and they certainly can’t learn.”
So what programs currently exist for hungry kids? Along with participating in the National School Lunch Program, Wyoming also participates in the federally assisted Summer Food Service program.
The summer program feeds kids by opening sites — hosted by sponsors like schools or camps — where children can get a meal. Meal sites are located in areas where the local school or census block has greater than 50% eligibility for free and reduced lunches. Wyoming had 92 sites in 2024, in cities like Cheyenne and Laramie to burgs like Hanna, Cowley and Ethete.
SUN Bucks advocates, however, say not all kids can access them — especially in rural areas.
Filling out the state’s food assistance landscape are community food pantries, charities and backpack programs, which send students home with food to help feed them on weekends. The Food Bank of Wyoming alone supplies items to more than 160 partners across the state, for example.
But the network has shown precarity; mobile food pantries have recently shuttered or are scheduled to end in Rawlins, Guernsey, Marbleton, Moorcroft and Lusk, Gordon said. Pantries also have closed in Natrona and Converse counties in recent years.
“There are significant and consequential gaps, especially when it comes to our kids,” Gordon said.
Shame sandwich
When SUN Bucks started, Degenfelder said, she viewed it as a welfare program and opposed how the funding comes only on the debit-like cards rather than in the form of direct meals to students. SUN Bucks also required the state to pay half of the administrative costs.
“And so I stand by that decision to not look to implement that program,” Degenfelder said. “But we also have an issue here.”
She has heard too many concerning stories like this one: A child goes through the line for a hot lunch only to realize at checkout that his or her debt is too high. The child has to turn back that meal, which is thrown away, “and all of this unfolding in front of their peers,” she said.
Gordon has similar tales. School districts have racked up debt to pay for some students that aren’t getting enough food through existing programs, she said, and those debts are growing unsustainable.
“Some districts can only offer children an alternate meal, which is a sandwich and milk or sometimes the juice from fruit cocktail,” Gordon said. “For those children, that’s either the best or the only meal of their day, and they pay for it, because other kids call that ‘the sandwich of shame.’”
Degenfelder’s office has created a stakeholder cabinet to examine ways to improve or increase Wyoming’s summer feeding sites. And there is more work to be done, she said.
“I think that this committee could be a great opportunity for us to come together to discuss these federal programs, state funding,” and other aspects of the issue, Degenfelder said at the meeting. Ultimately, it was determined that the Recalibration Committee would take it up.
Lawmakers like Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland and Rep. McKay Erickson, R-Afton, were in support of keeping the discussion alive.
“It’s an important topic,” Lawley said. “I was sad to see the summer program not pass, to be honest with you, and I feel like we can’t continue to ignore the issue, that these children should not suffer.”
WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
This story was posted on March 27, 2025.