AMES, Iowa (IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – Iowa legislators discussed food policy priorities, including the Choose Iowa program, food education efforts and support for food insecure individuals Friday at the Iowa Local Food Summit.The summit, led by Iowa Food System Coalition and Iowa Farmers Union, included panels with state agencies and Republican and Democratic legislators on local food policies. The discussions at the summit centered on supporting Iowa food producers, addressing issues of food insecurity in the state and the places where those two issues intersect.Food insecurity About 12% of Iowans are food insecure, according to data from Feeding American. But food security advocates project recent federal changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will make it more difficult for the state to support food-insecure households. Iowa has also enacted its own changes to food assistance programs. In January, Gov. Kim Reynolds’ plan to stop SNAP recipients from purchasing sugary drinks, candy and other items, goes into effect. This summer, the state opted to carry out its own summer feeding program for food insecure children, rather than follow the federal summer feeding program. State Sen. Annette Sweeney, R-Iowa Falls, said these programs allowed for greater localization of food assistance. “Our local individuals working in the food pantries, they see the need,” Sweeney said. With a state-led program, she said, these local individuals are able to advocate for changes and adjustments to a program so they can best serve their recipients. Rather than loading money onto SNAP Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards on a per-child basis as the federal program operates, the state program partnered with food banks to instead distribute $40 worth of food, per child, to households. Erin Drinnin, the division director for community access and eligibility at the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, said during a panel earlier Friday that the state is still waiting for a finalized evaluation report of the Healthy Kids Iowa program. Preliminary feedback from the evaluation, according to Drinnin, showed that parents “really liked the program” but food banks and distribution sites reported there were “lots of operational challenges” due to the amount of food they had to move in a short period of time. Reynolds, speaking with reporters outside of her Terrace Hill residence Nov. 25, said the state is still “looking at all options” with the program to decide how it will proceed next year. Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, opposed the state’s summer program and said a return to the federally led program would allow for more consumer choice. “People who are on SNAP buy the same groceries that you and I buy,” Wessel-Kroeschell said. “Sometimes we buy a treat, but not always … So I strongly support the SNAP program, the Summer EBT program, I hope we someday are participating in it also.”Local food policies C Read More