A healthcare advocacy group is speaking out against Gov. Bill Lee’s choice to turn down federal aid that would have helped Tennessee families who get free or low-cost meals during the school year get food during the summer.
In an email to the media, the Tennessee Justice Center (TJC) said Lee’s choice was “fiscally irresponsible and unjust.”
TJC says this about Lee’s choice to turn down the federal help and instead make a smaller state supplement program:
The Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS) said on February 14, 2025, that the state would spend $3 million on a limited version of the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (S-EBT) program. This program would help kids in only 15 areas get food. There are at least 675,000 kids in 80 counties who will not get important help to pay for groceries this summer because of this choice. Food prices are still going up.
Signe Anderson, who is in charge of nutrition advocacy at TJC, talked about how the choice would affect people in this way:
“TDHS’s program will only help up to 25,000 kids, instead of the 700,000 kids that Summer EBT used to help in Tennessee.” The Tennessee program will only reach less than 4% of the kids who got Summer EBT in 2024, even though it costs almost as much to serve the whole state.
When the state-based program with fewer students was announced, some lawmakers urged the governor to change his mind and accept the government help before the deadline of February 15.
There was a letter to Gov. Lee from every Democrat in the Tennessee House and Senate asking him to change his mind and join the program for 2025.
