Child hunger advocates worry state won’t meet food needs this summer after rejecting $84M

Tennessee is seeking the help of community groups to serve as partners for a federal Summer Food Service Program. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

After rejecting millions of dollars in federal funds intended to help families buy food for their children during the summer, Tennessee officials have begun recruiting organizations to participate in a separate program that serves meals at churches, playgrounds and community centers.

Advocates who work to end child hunger in Tennessee praise the Summer Food Services Program, a long-running initiative that last year partnered with dozens of community groups to prepare and serve 7 million onsite meals to low-income kids, funded by about $20 million in federal dollars.

But they said the program cannot make up for the loss of Summer EBT, which distributed $84 million in federal funding to low income Tennessee families in the form of $120 monthly cash payments per child, loaded on debit cards to use at the grocery store

.“These programs work best in tandem, not in opposition,” said Signe Anderson, senior director of nutrition advocacy at the Tennessee Justice Center. 

Lee, for the second year in a row, opted not to secure the Summer EBT funding by the government’s Jan. 1 deadline. 

Tennessee is one of 12 Republican-led states this year to forgo the funding, citing reasons that included an ideological opposition to “attempts to expand the welfare state” and administrative costs paid by states. In 2025 Tennessee spent $5 million to administer the federal program. 

In its place, the governor last year established a Summer Nutrition Initiative operating in 15 counties, providing 18,000 kids the same per-child funding as the federal program: $120 for each child. In total, the state spent $3 million on the program.

Gov. Bill Lee stays mum as a deadline looms to opt into a summer food program for kids

Hundreds of thousands of children in Tennessee’s other 80 counties, including the state’s urban centers in Shelby and Davidson, weren’t eligible. Lee has not indicated publicly whether he intends to roll out the program again this year. HIs office has ignored questions about the governor’s plans.

The Summer Food Service Program will be available in all 95 Tennessee counties, but state officials noted they are making a concerted push to recruit organizations in rural parts of the state that have historically had little or no meal sites. 

They include Benton, Carroll, Carter, Cocke, Fayette, Grainger, Houston, Humphreys, Johnson, Lauderdale, Marshall, Moore, Rhea, and Sequatchie, according to Danielle Cotton, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Human Services, which administers the program.

Anderson said the program can present challenges to some families. Families need transportation to get their children to feeding sites and some rural areas and neighborhoods don’t have a convenient site available. And organizations that contract with the state to provide meals may set hours that are inconvenient to some families. 

“SFSP does not reach all the families in need,” she said.

State officials are encouraging faith-based organizations, nonprofits and other community groups to apply to participate in the program, saying they hope to surpass the distribution of 700,000 meals last year. For more information, visit the Tennessee Department of Human Services website. 

Parents interested in locating a Summer Food Service Program feeding location can contact the department’s Summer Food Service Program main line at 615-313-4749 or get in touch with their local school as the end of the school year approaches.