Dive Brief:
- Free school meals could soon be harder to access for some students as a result of the Republican-led One Big Beautiful Bill Act, according to a July 7 analysis from the Center for American Progress.
- The 1-year-old law, which made significant cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid, threatens the ability of schools and districts to serve free school meals to all students through the Community Eligibility Provision, the analysis said. CEP often relies on direct certification, which helps schools qualify for the program by automatically considering students who participate in SNAP or Medicaid as eligible for free school meals.
- About 4.7 million people have already lost access to SNAP benefits since OBBBA took effect in July 2025, according to the Food Research & Action Center. At the same time, a May analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found the number of children receiving SNAP assistance declined by more than 700,000 across 12 states since OBBBA was implemented.
Dive Insight:
During the 2024-25 school year, more than 49,000 public schools participated in CEP, a federal program that allows schools and districts in high-poverty areas to serve free meals to all students, according to the Center for American Progress analysis. That means the program impacted about 25.1 million public school students, the center added.
More broadly, the Center for American Progress analysis said that 33.9 million public school students qualified for free or reduced-price meals through individual eligibility or their schools’ participation in CEP in the 2024-25 school year.
Under CEP, a school, group of schools or district can serve free meals to all students if at least 25% are identified as eligible for direct certification based on their or their families’ participation in SNAP, Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, programs under the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, Head Start, or Medicaid.
In fiscal year 2023, 28% of SNAP recipients were school-aged children, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.
If children stop receiving SNAP or Medicaid benefits, they could likely lose access to direct certification, which helps their district or school more easily qualify for free school meals under CEP. Should a district or school no longer be able to directly certify at least 25% of their students, they lose access to CEP eligibility and cannot serve free meals to all students, the Center for American Progress said.
In a White House fact sheet posted last year, the Trump administration said the OBBBA “protects and strengthens SNAP,” because the law will help preserve the federal food assistance program “for the truly needy.” The White House has said that SNAP is meant to provide temporary help, the program’s fraud rate is high, and that nearly three-quarters of able-bodied adults without dependents who rely on SNAP don’t have an income.
The Center for American Progress' analysis also said that families who lose access to free school meals could face unexpected, and possibly expensive, costs to feed their children during the school day. For instance, the center estimates that families with two children enrolled in public school would have to spend an additional $1,890 per school year on school-offered breakfast and lunches or $2,214 for packed meals.
“When a family loses their SNAP benefits, it can also mean their kids lose access to free school meals,” said Mimla Wardak, research associate for Economic Policy at Center for American Progress and co-author of the report, in a July 7 statement. “And when a student has to skip meals at school, they face steeper barriers to learning. These cuts directly threaten American children’s well-being and their futures.”
Some 74% of school districts are also concerned about the impacts these federal budget cuts on SNAP and Medicaid will have on school meals, according to a FRAC report released in May.
