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U.S. cuts may limit free meals at schools

Changes could affect thousands in state

By: Matt Cortina
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Of all the concerns kids had when they went back to school in New Jersey this September, [2025] what they were eating for lunch was likely low on the list. With federal dollars being spent to procure local food form farmers and well over 150,000 kids receiving free breakfast and lunch, two nutritious meals were an afterthought for most students in the state.
..... But after a slew of changes in the months since, that may no longer be the case. And many low-income families may not even know their kids are no longer eligible for free school meals - or that there'll ahve to jump through new bureaucratic hoops to enroll.
..... "Bottom line, we should be streamlining these programs," said Lisa Pitz, director of Hunger Free New Jersey, a romper of the Center for Food Action working to address food insecurity in the state. "We should be making it easier for struggling, working families to access these programs so that they and their children ahve access to healthy food."
..... Here's where we stand in New Jersey with changes to school meal programs, how Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and what districts and the state can do to prepare.
..... This gets a little wonky, but essentially there are three changes to school food programs already or soon to be in effect:
( elimination of funding for a program called Local Food for Schools (LES).
* Reductions in students eligible for free lunches via SNAP.
* And schools no longer qualifying for a program called Community Eligibility Provisions (CEP).
..... We'll look at these one at a time.

Local food for Schools

..... LFS was a program that allowed school districts to purchase far-fresh food from local producers for their meal program.
..... This year, [2025] the Trump administration ended the program, canceled $16 million in funding in New Jersey alone. What was left in the coffers had to be spent by the end of October, [2025] said Rose chamberlain, Division of Food and Nutrition director at the state Department Agriculture.
..... "The LFS was very instrumental in connecting schools with local farms and bringing in local produce. LFS was helping with creating local food systems," she said. "It allowed schools to provide locally grown and raised products for the school meals programs, so it's connected with local farms."
..... While the state will provide some funding through grants and temporary assistance, the regular federal funding will no longer be provided after this year. [2025]

SNAP for school lunch

..... The second big funding change comes in connect with changes to SNAP eligibility. In short kids in households that qualify for SNAP are automatically enrolled in free school meal programs in New Jersey; if a household is no longer eligible for SNAP, kids may no longer qualify for fee meals, or their family may have to fill out extra paperwork.
..... These changes would impact eligibility next school year. [2026-2027]
..... The concern once these cuts and changes to SNAP and Medicaid are implemented, it is very likely that many, many kids will be in households that will lose SNAP benefits, either because of the new requirements or because of bureaucracy - people just falling off the rolls, more paperwork, more this, more that. And so those kids will no longer be directly certified for free school meals, Pitz said.
..... Chamberlain oversees this direct certification process and sad "it's a streamlined process" and that, "If the SNAP eligibility changes, that could of course result in a reduction of students that are automatically eligible for free meals in school." She added that the state works with districts to ensure families receive the necessary paperwork to enroll if they are no longer directly certified.
..... the changes to SNAP include new work requirements, immigration status and more demands on states covering costs of the program. It total, H.R.1, or the "Big Beautiful Bill," cut almost 4200 billion form the program.

Community eligibility Provisions

..... The last piece of this is the Community eligibility Provisions (CEP). Basically, if a quarter of a school's student body are directly certified for free school meals, the entire school gets funding to provide free meals to every student. If fewer students are directly certified, schools may not meet that percentage requirement and may lose fee meals for the entire student body.
.... Pitz said the number of school food authorities participating in CEP almost doubled this past school year, [2024-2025] which "translates to literally tens of thousands more kids who are able to get free breakfast and lunch at school this school year [2025-2026] because so many of those districts were able to pot into CEP.
..... "If those percentages of kids directly certified goes down enough, there will be districts that won't be able to participate in CEP," she added. "So those kids will not be getting free breakfast and lunch at school anymore under the provision."

What is being done?

..... It's important to cut through the jargon, statistics and acronyms. While the funding mechanisms and changes can be complex, the question regarding the impact they have is simple: Will kids have enough to eat at school in New Jersey?
..... Pitz said Hunger Free New Jersey has been advocating for universal free school meals, like in New York and eight other states.
..... "It will be a real shame if that gets set back because of what's going on at the federal level, because these are kids. It should be a no-brainer," Pitz said. "And to be honest, it's largely been a fairly bipartisan point. It's also really shortsighted because there's a ton of evidence that shows when kids have access to free breakfast and lunch at school, have access to healthy meals, it improves their health outcomes, it improves their education outcomes. It's an investment. It's the right thing to do and it's an investment."
..... And, free school meals save low-income families about $120 a month in grocery costs.

Is there a short-term solution?

..... With regards to replacing LFS funds, state legislators secured $6.8 million in replacement funding in the short term. More broadly, Chamberlain hopes the connections cerated among schools, kids and farmers continue in the state.
..... "We hope that schools will continue the connection with the growers even post-LFS. The idea was to support local food systems. We've had farm-to-school as an initiative for well over 10 years," she said. "And farmers want to sell to our schools and schools want to buy from our farmers. though this funding we have encouraged that and have given them the funding for them to do that."
..... Chamberlain added that while the LFS funding allowed for unique programs, "school food service workers every day work hard at putting together nutritious, balanced, thoughtful meals for the kids."
..... Communication and education are critical with regards to SNAP and CEP. while some kids and districts may no longer be automatically enrolled in free school meals, individual households may still qualify. Pitz says that while some districts have the resources to fill out applications with parents, others don't, so organizations like Hunger Free New Jersey and school districts are preparing to handle a potential increase in paperwork.
..... After all, minding all the details could mean the difference in a kid eating or not.
..... "I think the important role that schools play in providing nutrition assistance to our children has always been important, but it;s going to be more important than ever," Pitz said. "And we want to make sure we're making it easier for families and making sure we have more families who are directly certified and directly enrolled in free school meals."

..... Matt Cortina is a food reporter for NorthJersey.com/The Record. Reach him at mcortina@gannett.com.

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