Three Head Start programs in Nebraska will receive about $385,000 in recaptured funds, a portion of which are intended to meet goals created by the Trump administration’s Make American Healthy Again initiative.
The funding reappropriated in Nebraska will go to the Community Action Partnership of Lancaster and Saunders Counties, the Community Action Partnership of Western Nebraska and Educational Service Unit 13, which covers programs in Saunders and Lancaster counties as well as counties in western Nebraska.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced a nationwide release of $225 million on Tuesday, distributed through the Administration for Children and Families. This is not new funding, but preapproved money that was unused by Head Start programs during previous years.
“When local Head Start programs do not meet their enrollment targets, the unused funds are recaptured and reinvested within Head Start rather than being retained elsewhere or lost to the program,” the ACF Office of Communications said in a statement to Nebraska Public Media News.
Eighty-nine million of the $225 million total is earmarked for spending that will "improve access to nutrient-dense foods, strengthen food preparation and storage capacity, support farm-to-table and gardening initiatives, [and] provide nutrition education for children and families," a news release from the ACF said.
Other funds are meant for "critical one-time needs," which are improvements to equipment and infrastructure that don't require long-term funding.
The announcement comes after a federal notice of proposed rulemaking in August that presented a plan to remove over 1,400 federal regulations on Head Start programs nationwide.