Why Trump’s SNAP cuts could affect free NC school lunches starting next year
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- SNAP cuts may jeopardize free or reduced school meals for 850,000 NC children.
- CMS schools could see decreases in federal lunch subsidies tied to student SNAP eligibility in the coming years.
- Local food banks report surging demand as nation faces SNAP cuts starting 2026.
Federal cuts to food assistance could mean more local students go hungry, advocates say. But the changes won’t take effect until 2026.
The budget reconciliation package President Donald Trump signed into law July 4 calls for $186 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by 2035.
Tighter SNAP eligibility requirements will affect the number of students who directly qualify for free school lunches because students who receive SNAP benefits automatically qualify for free meals at school. Medicaid eligibility also can determine whether a student automatically qualifies for free school meals, and it is also seeing budget cuts.
Up to 850,000 NC children may no longer qualify for free or reduced price meals, according to Marianne Weant, programs manager at North Carolina Alliance for Health. The first effects would be felt next year.
What that means, Weant says, is many families who previously qualified automatically will need to fill out new forms each year, and many may no longer qualify for free or reduced cost school meals. Aside from being time-consuming for parents, it increases the cost to school districts, many of which already have tight pursestrings.
“These are kids. They have no ability to control whether parents fill out forms; they have no control over whether they make it to the grocery store that week,” Weant told The Charlotte Observer.
Around 42 million Americans, including 1.4 million people in North Carolina, depend on SNAP benefits to afford groceries each month. It’s the largest anti-hunger program in the country.
The SNAP eligibility changes in the law expanded work requirements for able-bodied adults age 18-64 and removed the work requirement exemption for parents with kids over the age of 7. Veterans, people experiencing homelessness and those who have recently aged out of foster care will also no longer be exempt from certain work requirements.
The changes also require states to cover up to 15% of the cost of the program, which previously was federally funded. Meanwhile, 79% of the NC Department of Health and Human Services’ total budget currently comes from the federal government.
“There’s a lot of heat on the state… We haven’t historically seen huge state investment in these programs,” Weant said. “We’re going to have to have some real come-to-Jesus meetings about how we fund human services and combat food insecurity.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools effects
Students’ SNAP eligibility is part of the calculation that determines which schools get the Community Eligibility Provision. Schools with 25% or more students who automatically qualify for free lunch get funding for all students to get free lunches — without parents having to fill out a meal application.
During the 2025-26 school year, 115 schools of the 186 total schools in CMS are CEP approved, a district spokesperson told The Observer.
Free breakfast will continue to be available for all students at all CMS campuses this school year, district leaders confirmed Tuesday. The same doesn’t apply to lunches.
Not all of the changes will go into effect at once, though, with the first taking effect in 2026 and others in 2027 and 2028.
Tina Postel is the chief executive officer of Nourish Up, an organization that combats hunger in Mecklenburg County through food banks, grocery delivery and the meals on wheels program.
Postel said the organization’s busiest month is usually July, since it’s the one month a year when kids are not in school at all. This July, the organization served 12,400 people at its full-size food pantry – up 20% from 2024. She said demand also has increased significantly in recent years: Nourish Up served 164,000 people in 2024 alone.
“My biggest concern is in the last three years, we’ve seen a 115% increase,” Postel said. “I can only imagine what the numbers will look like when we see these cuts actually go into effect… Quite frankly, I’m terrified.”
Nourish Up sees a huge demand from school teachers for snacks for students who come to school hungry, Postel said. In 2024, the organization distributed 10,000 pounds of snacks to teachers around the county.
“When you talk about schools losing funding for free and reduced lunch programs, we don’t have enough snacks to go around,” Postel said. “There’s not a food drive big enough to cover this gap, but that doesn’t mean that every gift doesn’t count…It’s going to take collective action to make sure that everybody has food on their plates.”
This story was originally published August 25, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
