USDA Cuts More Than $1 Billion Earmarked For Local Food In Schools, Food Banks

Millions of children risk losing access to free school meals with these changes, school meal advocates say.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has cut more than $1 billion in federal programs that gave schools and food banks funding to purchase food from local farms and ranchers ― a move that school lunch advocates say will take away free meals from millions of children whose parents are grappling with rising grocery prices.

The School Nutrition Association (SNA), a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring children are fed nutritious meals in schools, sounded the alarm on the program cuts Monday.

“With research showing school meals are the healthiest meals Americans eat, Congress needs to invest in underfunded school meal programs rather than cut services critical to student achievement and health,” SNA president Shannon Gleave, a registered dietitian nutritionist, said.

“These proposals would cause millions of children to lose access to free school meals at a time when working families are struggling with rising food costs,” she continued. “Meanwhile, short-staffed school nutrition teams, striving to improve menus and expand scratch-cooking, would be saddled with time-consuming and costly paperwork created by new government inefficiencies.”

SNA said more than 800 of its members are visiting Capitol Hill today to urge Congress to block the USDA’s cuts and keep investing in school meal programs.