The USDA says there’s a simple reason it did not mention the impact tighter SNAP rules would have on access to free school meals for low-income children: It is not proposing any changes in school meals. Yet two Democratic lawmakers say more than half-a-million schoolchildren will lose eligibility for free meals under the Trump administration proposal to restrict so-called categorical eligibility for food stamps.
“The proposed rule does not in any way modify the school meals eligibility standards,” said a USDA spokesperson on Tuesday. “It is Congress’s job to write those eligibility standards and USDA’s job to ensure they are carried out with integrity. Instead, this proposed rule ensures SNAP benefits go to those who meet the eligibility criteria as outlined by Congress.”
But restricting access to SNAP through categorical eligibility would disqualify some children from automatically getting free or reduced price meals as a SNAP recipient.
House Education chairman Bobby Scott said on Monday that USDA ought to revise its analysis of the SNAP proposal because it failed to list the impact on school meals. The SNAP proposal would end benefits for 3.1 million people. More than half-a-million children would lose automatic eligibility for free school meals if their food stamps are cut off, said Scott. Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, who chairs the House Agriculture subcommittee on nutrition, says the figure is 535,000 children.
“All children who qualify for school meals under the standards Congress provided would continue to receive free or reduced-price meals based on those respective standards,” said the USDA. The remark suggested families could file paperwork with schools to qualify for lower-cost meals.
During a July 22 teleconference, Brandon Lipps, acting deputy undersecretary for nutrition, said almost all children now receiving free or reduced price meals would continue to receive them under the SNAP proposal. At the end of the 2018-19 school year, more than 20 million children qualified for free school lunches and 1.7 million qualified for reduced-price lunches, according to USDA data. They were 74 percent of the 29.8 million children who participated in the school lunch program on an average day.