Mississippi quits child food program amid Republican ‘welfare state’ attack

Mississippi is withdrawing from a federal program to feed children during their summer break from school, the governor there announced, characterizing the decision as a way to reject “attempts to expand the welfare state”.

Governor Tate Reeves, a Republican, declined to participate in the federal program that would give electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards to low-income families to supplement food costs when academic classes are out of session, Mississippi Today reported.

Eligible families would have received $40 a month, or a total of $120 to account for the break between school terms.

However, Mississippi’s welfare agency undercut Reeves’s reasoning, saying the state does not have the capacity to administer the program.

“Both [the Mississippi department of education] and [its department of human services] lack the resources, including workforce capacity and funding, to support a summer EBT program,” a spokesperson for the state human services department, Mark Jones, said.

Reeves’s latest comments ignited fierce backlash.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, a scholar and creator of the 1619 Project, criticized Reeves’s decision as “cruelty”.

“The cruelty of being the poorest state in America and choosing – choosing – to turn down federal aid for poor children to eat,” Hannah-Jones said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Keith Boykin, author and co-founder of the National Black Justice Coalition, said funds earmarked for welfare in Mississippi have previously gone to superfluous objectives, including the construction of a sports stadium.

“Mississippi gave millions of dollars of welfare funds to former NFL quarterback Brett Favre to build a volleyball facility for his daughter’s school, but they won’t take federal funds to feed hungry