Starting Monday, new mothers in Benton Harbor, Niles, Buchanan and Benton Charter Township can sign up to receive a no-strings-attached $500 payment for each of the first six months of their child’s life, along with a $1500 payment to expecting mothers.
The communities are the latest to join Rx Kids, a public-private partnership that provides new moms and new-moms-to-be with cash. As of Wednesday, it was operating in 20 Michigan communities — not counting the Berrien County communities or Detroit, which also joined the program this week.
Benton Charter Township Supervisor Cathy Yates said the financial assistance is especially needed at a time when prices are on the rise.
"Every time I go to the grocery store, things do change. Prices are up on each and every item. So, I know that this is going to be truly an asset for our community."
Yates added that the financial and health benefits provided by the program will continue to improve the community for years to come.
“It also gives me hope for tomorrow because these kids getting things that they need today, they'll be better students in school and also better leaders of our community in the future.”
Other satellite programs in Flint and Kalamazoo provide 12 months of payments to new mothers for their programs, twice the amount set to be provided in Berrien County.
Rx Kids Spokesperson Laura Cane said Berrien County could only afford to provide payments for half a year, with all programs needing to have enough funding to run the initiatives for at least three years.
Applicants must be at least 16 weeks pregnant or have had their baby on or after the first of the year.
Expansion despite cancellation
The expansion comes a month after Michigan House Republicans cancelled roughly $645 million in state funds, including $18.5 million meant for Rx Kids.
This raised concerns about the future of Rx Kids' community programs.
A week after the cancellation, Rx Kids Philanthropy Director Alyssa Stewart said the next few years of funding was secure, due to the program's public-private setup.
"Across 2025, the majority of funding for Rx Kids has been philanthropic funding. So, funding from foundations, donors and other municipal partners," Stewart said.
"Those funds remain. And so that's what's allowing us to continue on.”
But Stewart clarified that Rx Kids was still reliant on state funds, adding that the cancellation could limit future expansion.
Then how did they expand to Berrien County?
At Wednesday's announcement, Stewart said this was because Berrien's program had a separate state funding source.
“Expansion is still happening because we still have a $250 million investment that's part of this year's budget. And so those are the resources that are supporting this expansion, along with local philanthropic dollars."
As for the limitation on future expansion, Stewart said if state funds were not restored, Rx Kids' reach would be diminished.
"It will mean that we can expand to 6,000 less babies than we had hoped to based on the amount of money that we believed we had in the budget."
As it happens, on the same day as the Berrien announcement, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel issued an opinion on the move by House Republicans, calling it "unconstitutional."
According to a statement from the Attorney General's Office, this clears the way for the Michigan State Budget Office to resume distribution of funds.
In a statement, Republican House Speaker Matt Hall promised to sue, calling the opinion issued by Nessel a "political decision."
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
