Despite being one of the poorest states in the nation, Mississippi has opted out of a new summer food program that could have reached hungry children across the state. Black children will likely pay the greatest price.
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On Wednesday, Mississippi announced that it was dropping out of a new U.S. Department of Agriculture program allowing families who qualify for free or reduced school lunch programs to get additional food assistance during the months that school isn’t in session and lunch programs are not available. The program is similar to a pandemic-era program that greatly reduced food insecurity among children.
The newly initiated program is expected to feed 21 million children nationwide. But roughly 15 states, including Mississippi, have decided to opt out. According to Chalkbeat, that means an estimated 9.5 million children who would’ve qualified for the program “will likely go without.” [The Root previously reported on other state’s who’ve dropped out of the program].
Mississippi’s case is particularly noteworthy because not only would tens of thousands of children likely be eligible based on the reduced lunch population, but roughly 19 percent of Mississippians live in poverty. Approximately 1 in 5 children are food insecure in the state.
Black children in Mississippi are in even more dire straits: Research from United Way found that even before the pandemic, roughly 73 percent of Black children lived in households that couldn’t afford basic necessities, compared with 38 percent of white children.
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