Kemp passes on chance to feed hungry kids

We can all agree that groceries are becoming harder to afford, and that Georgia’s children deserve access to the food they need to grow and thrive. Summer places a particular strain on families’ grocery budgets. On top of soaring costs, children being out of school for summer creates a huge meal gap for families to fill. For many families, accessing two meals a day at school is a lifeline they can’t afford to do without.

While summer feeding sites do serve meals to kids while school is out, these locations alone cannot solve the reality of increased need. For rural Georgia communities without a summer feeding site, regular meals are out of reach for families without reliable transportation. Limited operating hours can also be a barrier, especially for working people trying to balance their jobs with caregiving.

This isn’t a new problem. In fact, SUN Bucks, also called Summer EBT, is a program designed to fill this known gap by providing additional funds to SNAP-eligible families during the summer months. Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by the states, state governments have to deliver these federal dollars into our communities. Yet, in an act of privileged cruelty, Gov. Kemp vetoed feeding Georgia’s hungriest children this summer — and next summer, too.

To deliver the saving grace of SUN Bucks to struggling families, the state legislature must opt in and invest some state funds that unlock federal dollars. A bipartisan effort this year allocated $2 million in the state’s budget, a down payment on the state’s share of costs. That money would have unlocked $143 million in food aid that Georgia parents could use to feed their children during the summer, a great return on our investment. Keep in mind that this same governor authorized $2.5 billion in tax breaks for data centers — one source of rising costs and expanded need.

Financial considerations are a critical factor — more important, though, is the moral cost of this betrayal. The greatest return on investment we can receive as taxpayers is on the public dollars we pour into our children and their health. With an estimated 1 in 5 Georgia kids at risk of hunger, a smart state would leverage every tool at our disposal to close the meal gap in our state.

Instead, as Trump Republicans like Kemp celebrate the loss of health insurance and the slashing of SNAP benefits to fund the coffers of billionaires, working families pay the price. Duly-employed Georgians who depend on food assistance must navigate months of hunger while facing rising gas and grocery prices. In response, Trump Republicans echoed their leader who mocked, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation” and decried the crippling increase in gas prices as “peanuts.”

The cost of this meanness will last beyond the hunger pangs of summer. Studies show that without regular access to nutritious food, kids often experience a larger than average “summer slide,” where students forget some of what they learned the previous school year.

This year, Kemp is trying to justify vetoing $344 million in spending on programs like SUN Bucks by saying this is a choice that must be made in response to the $1.3 billion deficit created by the tax cuts passed this year. When asked about the cuts he made, he said, “I wasn’t going to leave the state or our next governor or General Assembly in that fiscal position.”

Kemp and his ilk are willing to sacrifice children in exchange for avoiding tough choices. Authoritarians and their lackeys will always hurt the weak to mollify the powerful. The decision to forgo participation in Summer EBT is not simply a singular choice about one program here in our state. This mirrors what has happened in Washington, D.C., when the mega-millionaire tax cuts slashed funding for safety net programs that balance the pain of a flailing economy in favor of generating unimaginable wealth for the already absurdly wealthy.

Kemp squandered billions in surplus and ran up the tab to serve rich Georgians. Now he’s sticking Georgia children with the check. By vetoing SUN Bucks yet again, we have further proof of how little he cares. But we do care — and we can act. As a community, we can pull together to ensure all children in this state have an opportunity to grow and thrive.

In the short term, we can support our food banks, pantries and summer feeding sites working to meet a rising need for assistance. We can also invest in our children with our votes. In November, we must vote for leaders who are willing to invest taxpayer dollars and our moral authority in one of Georgia’s greatest assets: our children.

We owe them no less.

Stacey Abrams is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and host of the podcast “Assembly Required.” She previously served as the minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives.