A new proposal from the Trump administration further restricts states’ enrollment standards for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
SNAP is the largest federal nutrition assistance program that provides benefits to eligible low-income families.
Federal officials believe that some families are abusing the program and are getting benefits they don’t deserve.
Brown County School Corp. Superintendent Laura Hammack says that about half of their student population qualifies for free and reduced lunch and that many families and students rely on schools to serve healthy, nutritious meals for breakfast and lunch.
She says the proposal could negatively affect them.
“We are concerned—Without access to free and reduce benefits, we do have a situation where students sincerely would not be accessing high quality food during their school day,” Hammack says.
Hammack says that their new program this year, the “after-school supper program,” that provides students and families breakfast, lunch and dinner at school would also be affected by this proposal.
“This would be a massive issue for the health and wellness of our student population,” Hammack says.
According to USDA, this proposal would cause over 3 million people to lose access to nutritional assistance, with around 40,000 children to lose access to free and reduced school meals.