New USDA Data Shows SNAP Rule Takes Away School Meals from Nearly 1 Million Children

New data released from USDA shows that their recent proposal to alter categorical eligibility for SNAP will cause deeper harm than originally estimated when it comes to taking food away from kids both at home and at school. The new report estimates that nearly 1 million children will lose automatic eligibility for free school meals when their households lose eligibility for SNAP under a proposed rule that primarily hurts working families with children, seniors, and people with disabilities. Of the 982,000 children that could be impacted, 497,000 children will move from the free school meals category to the reduced-price meals category, and 40,000 children will lose eligibility for subsidized school meals entirely. Other children will retain eligibility for federally subsidized meals but are at risk of not knowing this if their family can’t successfully navigate the application process.

Bottom line: the proposed rule takes food off the tables of 3.1 million Americans who lose the ability to apply for SNAP despite being income-eligible to receive SNAP and imposes another food cost hardship on families with school-age kids when they lose eligibility for free school meals. These families have relied on school meals for a source of daily, basic nutrition to keep their kids fueled and focused on learning. And the loss of school meals is directly tied with the loss of SNAP to help them buy nutritious food for the whole household.

This data was released after the closing of the 60-day public comment period to speak out against this harsh and harmful proposal, so USDA has re-opened the comment period for 14 days. That means that now there are two open comment periods to speak out against harmful changes to SNAP: the 14-day comment period on the categorical eligibility rule ends on Nov. 1 and comments on the rule that impacts the standard utility allowance for SNAP, potentially cutting SNAP benefits by $4.5 billion over the next 5 years, are due by December 2, 2019.

Your comments matter! Earlier this month, federal courts issued three nationwide preliminary injunctions that block implementation of the public charge rule, protecting lawful access to SNAP, housing assistance, and other public benefits for green card holders and applicants. In each of those cases, the presiding judges believed that plaintiffs are likely to prevail on arguments that USDA did not properly follow the rulemaking process and on constitutional arguments of harm described in public comments. So please submit your public comments opposing these rules to help the legal challenges that can prevent these harmful changes from taking place.

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