You'll never believe what happened...

On Thursday, October 3, for the third time this year, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced another change to SNAP that would cut food benefits by a total of $4.5 billion.

Children who live in households that receive SNAP benefits are directly certified (automatically eligible) to receive free school breakfast and lunch. While the initial estimate showed that the rule could jeopardize more than 500,000 children’s access to free school meals, the new USDA analysis states that as many as 982,000 children could be impacted, with 497,000 children moving from free to reduced-price meals, and 40,000 completely losing eligibility for both free and reduced-price school meals.

If this rule is enacted, children will be hungry at home and school. Since childhood hunger is linked to academic struggles, difficulties focusing and concentrating, mental health disorders, and increased behavioral referrals, many schools would struggle to meet the educational, health, and mental health needs of the students who lose SNAP benefits and as a result, access to free school meals. If adopted, the rule would eliminate SNAP benefits for 3.1 million people, and a newly released USDA analysis found that it would jeopardize nearly one million children’s access to free school breakfast and lunch (Food Research & Action Center, 2019).

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