Wyoming first lady and schools officials press committee to study childhood food insecurity and summer feeding gaps

First Lady Jenny Gordon told the Joint Education Committee on March 5 that childhood food insecurity in Wyoming leaves “over 83,000 citizens” facing hunger and that “35,000 of our kids” participate in free or reduced-price lunch programs, with about 5,000 children attending schools that do not offer the National School Lunch Program.

Gordon said charities and volunteers distribute food statewide, and that her nonprofit, Wyoming Hunger Initiative, has distributed more than $3,000,000 over six years; she also noted the Food Bank of Wyoming distributes about 28,000 meals per day. “When you see a fire, you don’t say this isn’t my problem,” she said, urging the committee to treat childhood hunger as an emergency and to keep school nutrition on its interim agenda.

State Superintendent Megan Degenfeller told the committee she had already included school nutrition in her strategic plan and described classroom incidents in which students were turned away from hot meals because of unpaid meal debt. Degenfeller said the department created a stakeholder cabinet and that three more counties had been added for this summer’s feeding sites but that “there’s still work to be done.” She also said the state declined to implement a federal summer electronic benefits program, citing concerns about administrative cost-sharing and federal guidance the department considered beyond what the law required.

Committee members asked about causes of food insecurity. Degenfeller said the primary drivers are high costs of housing and living; families sometimes reduce food spending to afford other necessities. Several legislators, including Representatives Lolly and Erickson, expressed support for studying the issue and for gathering more localized data to target solutions.

The officials asked the committee to consider summer meal gaps and software inefficiencies that increase district administrative costs. Degenfeller suggested Wyoming study statewide software or cost-saving approaches other states have used. The committee co-chair noted recalibration and other management processes may address some funding and program placement questions but left the door open to keeping school nutrition as a front-burner interim topic.

Ending: The committee did not take formal action on the topic during the meeting; members indicated support for adding school nutrition and summer feeding access to interim study priorities and for coordinating with recalibration and management-council scheduling.