Some students may lose free lunches
Trump’s proposed cuts to SNAP leave school officials scrambling
Nine years ago, Meghan Hilliard was pregnant but unsure she would be able to afford to feed her baby. “It used to be I’d wake up in a panic,” she said. After her son’s birth, Hilliard filled out an application for food benefits. The two of them have used Wisconsin’s FoodShare program on and off ever since.
With enrollment for food benefits, her son automatically qualifies for free meals at his suburban Milwaukee school.
But that all might change.
Just weeks before school starts, educators and state officials are scrambling to grasp how the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will affect their school districts.
The program is open to anyone who meets the requirements to need food assistance. Of more than 27,000 Wisconsin households that would lose benefits under the Trump cuts, 41% include children, said Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the Hunger Task Force. That means thousands of children across the state could lose their automatic access to free and reduced-price school meals.
“It’s harsh,” said Tussler. “For children to learn, they need regular access to healthy food and that’s what SNAP provides.”
The proposed change intends, among other things, to erase a loophole that automatically qualifies people for SNAP through the enrollment in other benefits programs.
Benson Gardner, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Instruction, said it is still analyzing the rule and cannot say precisely how it will impact students and families. But agency officials, he said, have “deep concerns about any students losing access to free-and-reduced lunches.”
That’s leaving schools in a lurch. Phil Ertl, superintendent of the Wauwatosa School District, said it has been trying to get additional information from DPI and its food service provider. “But they have not been able to determine the impact,” he said in a text to the Journal Sentinel.
Hilliard, who works part-time, is fairly certain she won’t qualify for assistance under the new rules. As a result, her son will no longer be automatically eligible for free meals at school.
“With the upcoming cuts, it’s going to make it difficult, not only for parents like me, but all students,” Hilliard said. “Students need food to do well in school.”
The change also is expected to eliminate school meals for low-income children across the state whose families earn too much for SNAP, but received free and reduced-priced meals through what’s known as the community eligibility provision, which eliminates the need for families to file applications.
Under that provision, districts in which at least 40% or more of students qualify for free-and-reduced lunch, can receive federal funding to feed all students in their schools. If a school falls below that 40% threshold, only the children who individually qualify for free meals are eligible.
Milwaukee Public Schools easily qualifies for free meals for all its students. The new cuts won’t affect its eligibility, Tussler said.
However, several schools and districts across the state — in rural and urban communities alike — hover just above 40% and could drop below the threshold if large numbers of students’ families lose their SNAP benefits.
Trump’s proposal comes at a time when schools across the country are already facing criticism for shaming students whose families have been unable to pay for lunch at school. Some Wisconsin schools, Tussler said, have given students lesser meals or pulled them out of class to call their parents and ask why they haven’t paid off their school lunch debt.
“Kids aren’t wage earners,” said Tussler. “They shouldn’t have to know what the financial burdens are.”
Now, some Wisconsin legislators are taking action. Rep. Gary Tauchen introduced a bill last spring that would require Wisconsin schools to provide an equal quality lunch to students. The bill would prohibit schools from taking action against students whose families can’t pay.
Some parents and community members have organized fundraising efforts to pay off school lunch debts. Hilliard belongs to the Parent Teacher Organization at her son’s school and has raised money for students and families unable to pay off meal debts. “We’ve kind of turned into a bunch of mom activists,” she said.