Nebraska

Summer EBT in Nebraska rolled out after governor’s controversial denial

Published

2 years ago

October 8, 2024

Summer EBT in Nebraska rolled out after governor’s controversial denial

LINCOLN – Sherry Brooks-Nelson has been very busy in her kitchen preparing chili, spaghetti and meatballs with bell peppers, and even fresh cornbread. The 66-year-old retiree most recently worked as a middle school cafeteria worker, and as the sole provider for her two teenage granddaughters, she doesn’t always have the resources to cook these big meals.

Nebraska’s Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program, a federal initiative to feed hungry kids during the long summer months, helped Brooks-Nelson and thousands of families that would’ve otherwise gone hungry.

Over the summer, the extra $40 per month per child for three months helped families across the state buy fresh produce they don’t usually have in their grocery budget, such as cabbage, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, apples and bananas.

“We’re able to get some things that we’re not used to eating because we just don’t have the money,” Brooks-Nelson said. “It’s a lot of money for me because I know how to stretch it. We love spinach and cabbage around here.”

But families like Brooks-Nelson’s in Nebraska almost didn’t get summer EBT benefits.

Last December, Nebraska was under the national spotlight when Gov. Jim Pillen rejected $18 million in grocery-buying federal funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help feed low-income Nebraskans, telling the media he didn’t “believe in welfare.” But in February, Pillen changed course after young Nebraskans and state lawmakers from both political parties convinced him to opt into the program.

Pillen’s initial reasoning for not opting into summer EBT was his argument that Nebraska’s Summer Food Service Program, which created a system of sites where children could access free meals, was adequate enough and helped provide important touch points for check-ins with families.

But advocates and lawmakers said it wasn’t enough, including Republican state Sen. Ray Aguilar, who prioritized a bill urging the state to opt into summer EBT. He had heard from former and current school administrators in Grand Island, a city in his district just west of Lincoln, that the area had the highest rate of students eligible for free and reduced lunches in the state.

“They were well aware that in the summertime, without cafeteria service, there’s kids going hungry,” Aguilar told USA TODAY. “That was an important reason, as far as I was concerned. Hearing from them, and coupled with the fact that I don’t want to see any kids go hungry, I thought it was kind of a no-brainer for me to jump on that.”

But more than a dozen states — all with Republican governors — refused the federal funds, including Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, according to the USDA.

According to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, the state distributed about $28 million in summer EBT funding to over 76,000 households.

“Under Governor Pillen’s direction, DHHS successfully developed the “Nebraska way” of implementing the S-EBT program while also identifying additional needs of children and their families through multiple touchpoints,” the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Service said in a statement to USA TODAY.

Eric Savaiano, a program manager at Nebraska Appleseed, a non-profit that advocates for underserved communities, said they heard from families who were “excited” about receiving EBT cards. He noted that while summer meal sites help families while school is out, they aren’t as accessible in the state’s rural areas, and summer EBT helped fill those gaps.

“We’re a very rural state, and it’s hard to go to those summer food service program sites,” Savaiano said. “Although there’s some new options that make it a little bit easier and spreads a bit more of the meals around, this is a program that reaches a ton more kids and can be a real lifeline.”

‘It’s just one thread’

While Nebraska rolled out summer EBT, across the state’s eastern border in the neighboring state of Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds chose not to have the state participate in the program this year, arguing that it was unsustainable and didn’t adequately address the state’s high childhood obesity rates.

“An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic,” Reynolds said in a December press release.

Luke Elzinga, chair of the Iowa Hunger Coalition, saw the negative impacts of the decision, with more children using food pantries this summer compared to past years when pandemic benefits were going out.

“In Iowa, we had 245,000 kids who would have qualified for this. It was $29 million in benefits could have gone out, and that certainly would have had an impact,” Elzinga said.

Alicia Christensen, the director of advocacy and policy for Together Omaha, an organization focused on combating homelessness and hunger, said there was a difference in traffic between their food pantry in Omaha, Neb., and their Council Bluffs location right across the border in Iowa.

Christensen noted that although the differences in food pantry usage can’t be attributed to one program, it didn’t hurt to have summer EBT in Nebraska, saying it worked in combination with other food and nutrition programs to help strengthen both food and nutrition security.

“It’s just one thread in different things that make up the whole cloth of that supportive system,” Christensen said. “The school lunch and breakfast program is a component, along with SNAP and WIC. And then summer EBT is just another. The more threads you have woven in there, the stronger it’s going to be, and when you take one of those out, it shifts all those resources downstream.”

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Nebraska

Nebraska State Track (5/23): KMAland lands 23 state medals on final day in Omaha

Published

10 hours ago

May 24, 2026

Press Room

Nebraska State Track (5/23): KMAland lands 23 state medals on final day in Omaha

(KMAland) — Twelve girls and 11 boys KMAland athletes/events were state medalists on Saturday at the final day of action at the Nebraska State Track & Field Championships in Omaha at Burke Stadium.

Check out the area rundown below and full results linked here.

BOYS CLASS C

Seven KMAland athletes won state medals in Class C with Johnson-Brock’s Calvin Benham (discus throw) and Deacon Bernadt (300 hurdles), Palmyra’s Gannon Hubbard (1600), Owen Ramaekers (1600) and Leyton Mapson (100) and Falls City’s Tanner Jackson (pole vault) all taking individual medals. The Palmyra 4×100 meter relay team also snagged a medal.

Check out the area rundown below.

10. Johnson-Brock (18.33 points)

•5th Place: Calvin Benham, discus throw (162-07)

•7th Place: Deacon Bernadt, 300 hurdles (40.61)

18. Palmyra (14 points)

•5th Place: Gannon Hubbard, 1600 meters (4:28.92)

•7th Place: 4×100 meter relay (43.71) & Owen Ramaekers, 1600 meters (4:29.68)

•8th Place: Leyton Mapson, 100 meters (11.28)

•10th Place: 4×400 meter relay (3:29.08)

•17th Place: Tyler Jensen, pole vault (12-00.00) & Grady Vasa, 800 meters (2:01.68)

23. Falls City (11 points)

•6th Place: Tanner Jackson, pole vault (13-06.00)

•9th Place: Caleb Offner, discus (158-11)

34. Johnson County Central (5 points)

•12th Place: Trevin Huskey, 1600 meters (4:35.69)

Louisville (0 points)

•10th Place: Keegan Witte, 800 meters (2:00.34)

•11th Place: 4×400 meter relay (3:29.29)

•24th Place: Lincoln Heins, 800 meters (2:06.83)

BOYS CLASS D

Humboldt-TRS had another solid Saturday with Kameon Dettmann taking second in the 800, and Emmett Glathar finishing in fourth place in the discus. Weeping Water added a pair of medals with Tucker Bickford taking sixth in the 800 and their 4×400 finishing in seventh.

Check out the area rundown below.

13. Weeping Water (15 points)

•6th Place: Tucker Bickford, 800 meters (2:01.40)

•7th Place: 4×400 meter relay (3:32.92)

16. Humboldt-TRS (13 points)

•2nd Place: Kameon Dettmann, 800 meters (1:58.70)

•4th Place: Emmett Glathar, discus (161-01)

•12th Place: 4×400 meter relay (3:35.78)

•15th Place: Axton Wamsley, 800 meters (2:05.58)

36. Falls City Sacred Heart (5 points)

•15th Place: Brenden Lemerond, 1600 meters (4:50.68)

•16th Place: Bo Fletcher, 1600 meters (4:51.67)

54. Lourdes Central Catholic (1 point)

•9th Place: Justus Kreifels, discus (145-06)

GIRLS CLASS C

Conestoga’s Abigail Harvey led the area with wins in the 800 and 200 wheelchair events while Harley Lubben of Johnson County Central was third in the shot put. Other medalists included JCC’s Molly Webber (100 & 200), Palmyra’s Alaena Hopkins (shot put), the Palmyra 4×400 and Ayla Garrett of Conestoga (triple jump).

Check out the area rundown below.

12. Johnson County Central (22 points)

•3rd Place: Harley Lubben, shot put (40-02.25)

•5th Place: Molly Weber, 100 meters (12.37) & 200 meters (25.52)

29. Palmyra (5 points)

•6th Place: Alaena Hopkins, shot put (39-03.25)

•7th Place: 4×400 meter relay (4:04.31)

•15th Place: Hailey Hengtgen, 1600 meters (5:40.25)

•18th Place: Kylie Badertscher, 800 meters (2:26.73)

35. Conestoga (3 points)

•1st Place: Abigail Harvey, 800 wheelchair (3:24.73) & 200 wheelchair (50.14)

•6th Place: Ayla Garrett, triple jump (36-02.00)

•11th Place: Chloe Bergmeyer, triple jump (35-00.25)

•21st Place: Ayla Garrett, 300 hurdles (50.45)

Johnson-Brock

•20th Place: Rylie Beethe, 300 hurdles (50.01)

•23rd Place: Leighton Edwards, 800 meters (2:29.12)

Falls City

•22nd Place: Jennifer Sweeney, 1600 meters (6:19.21)

GIRLS CLASS D

Humboldt-TRS’ Lillian Bowen led the area with a runner-up in the 800 while Lourdes Central Catholic’s Lily Madison ended up third in the triple jump. The Knights were fourth in the 4×100, and Brooklyn Borer added a fifth-place finish in the 100 hurdles for LCC.

Check out the area rundown below.

11. Lourdes Central Catholic (20 points)

•3rd Place: Lily Madison, triple jump (36-05.75)

•4th Place: 4×100 meter relay (50.89)

•5th Place: Brooklyn Borer, 100 hurdles (15.84)

•12th Place: Harper Rutt, triple jump (33-11.00) & Brooklyn Borer, 300 hurdles (49.18)

14. Humboldt-TRS (16 points)

•2nd Place: Lillian Bowen, 800 meters (2:23.47)

•14th Place: Grayson Sherman, 1600 meters (5:44.33)2

34. Weeping Water (4 points)

•11th Place: Kallie Brack, 1600 meters (5:38.16)

Falls City Sacred Heart (0 points)

•15th Place: Hallie Jones, shot put (34-07.25)

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Nebraska

Nebraska softball beats Oklahoma State in NCAA Super Regional; Heads to Women’s College World Series

Published

22 hours ago

May 23, 2026

Press Room

Nebraska softball beats Oklahoma State in NCAA Super Regional; Heads to Women’s College World Series

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN/WOWT) – Nebraska defeated Oklahoma State a second time at the NCAA Super Regional on Saturday, 9-1.

Because of their victory, the Huskers will head to the Women’s College World Series. This is the Husker’s first trip to the event since 2013.

The Women’s College World Series is set to take place between May 28 to June 5 at Devon Park in Oklahoma City, OK.

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Nebraska

Invasive Species Awareness Week starts Sunday, May 24 – Sandhills Express

Published

1 day ago

May 23, 2026

Press Room

Invasive Species Awareness Week starts Sunday, May 24 – Sandhills Express

May 24-30 marks Invasive Species Awareness Week. Nebraska Public Power District and Nebraska Game and Parks want to remind lake-goers to be careful and help prevent invasive species from getting into Nebraska lakes.

Nebraska Invasive Species Awareness Week provides an opportunity for residents to learn more about these species and discover how simple actions can help prevent their spread. Throughout the week, residents can learn more about invasive species impacting the state’s natural resources and economy, and what they can do to help prevent their spread. A series of webinars hosted by invasive species professionals will be held May 26-29 at 1 p.m. each day. On May 27, the public is invited to participate in an online invasive species trivia night, where participants can test their knowledge and win prizes from the comfort of their homes.

Invasive species are one of the leading threats to Nebraska’s natural resources, impacting ecosystems, outdoor recreation, agriculture, and state economies. From invasive plants crowding out native habitats to aquatic invasive species damaging waterways and infrastructure, prevention and education are critical to protecting Nebraska’s land and water resources.

Invasive species like zebra mussels can easily spread from one pond or lake to another if boat owners don’t fully drain all water from their watercraft after each use. Once zebra mussels enter a waterway, they attach to any available surface and reproduce rapidly, often clogging pipes and infrastructure.

The Nebraska water bodies with established zebra mussel populations are Lewis and Clark Lake, Lake Yankton, the Missouri River, Offutt Air Force Base Lake, and Beaver Lake near Plattsmouth. To combat the spread of zebra mussels and other aquatic invasive species, Game and Parks staff will conduct boat inspections at boat ramps statewide this summer. Since its implementation in 2020, the Aquatic Invasive Species Program has inspected more than 26,000 watercraft across the state.

Safety should remain a top priority when enjoying recreational activities on NPPD’s water resources, and the public is urged to follow all regulations set and enforced by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

Visit CleanDrainDry.org/ for more details on the Clean, Drain, Dry Procedure and OutdoorNebraska.gov/aquatic-invasive-species for information about invasive species in Nebraska. The public is encouraged to report any suspected observations of zebra mussels or other aquatic invasive species to Game and Parks at 402-471-7602 or at [email protected].

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