Overview:
Roughly 20 million children benefit from the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which enables high-poverty schools to provide free meals to all students without requiring families to verify income.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cut over $1 billion in funding that supports local food programs for schools and food banks. This move by the Trump administration, canceled the Local Food for Schools (LFS) program as part of broader efforts to cut funding for the National School Lunch Program, which was started under President Joe Biden in 2021. The LFS program, which was expected to provide $660 million in funding for 2025, was designed to support local food producers while helping schools expand fresh, regionally sourced menu options.
“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,” said Shannon Gleave, the president of the School Nutrition Association in a statement. “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.”
The cuts impact dozens of states that signed agreements with the USDA to participate in the LFS program in December and were just notified last week.
These states include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
In response to the cut, hundreds of school nutrition professionals visited Capitol Hill today as part of SNA’s Legislative Action Conference, calling on lawmakers to oppose these reductions and invest in school meal programs.
Democratic Governors have also strongly criticized these cuts, citing that students will go hungry without access to these meals.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk have declared that feeding children and supporting local farmers are no longer ‘priorities,’ and it’s just the latest terrible cut with real impact on families across Massachusetts,” said Massachusetts Gov., Maura Healey (D-MA). “There is nothing ‘appropriate’ about it. Trump and Musk are continuing to withhold essential funding in violation of court orders, and our children, farmers, and small businesses are bearing the brunt of it.”
While others lamented the effect it would have on farmers and the impact on children.
In a statement Tuesday, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) criticized the cuts, citing the $7.1 million partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the State of Georgia.
“This will hurt Georgia kids and Georgia farmers. We should support our schools providing kids with fresh, nutritious food grown locally by Georgia farmers. It’s a win-win for childhood nutrition and Georgia agriculture,” Ossoff said in the statement.
The proposed funding reductions come after several years of expanded access to free school meals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the USDA implemented a waiver that allowed all students to receive free meals, regardless of income, from 2020—during the first Trump administration—until 2022.
When asked for a statement from the USDA, the spokesperson said the programs were created by executive orders issued during Joe Biden’s presidency and “no longer effectuate the goals of the agency”.
Benefits of Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)
Today, roughly 20 million children benefit from the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which enables high-poverty schools to provide free meals to all students without requiring families to verify income. Schools can participate in CEP if at least 25% of their students qualify for free meals through other safety net programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
However, the proposed cuts could drastically reduce this access:
- Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Reductions: One proposal would remove 24,000 schools—serving 12 million students—from CEP, forcing many families to submit applications and reducing meal access in high-poverty schools.
- Eliminating Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility: Ending this provision would result in one million students losing automatic eligibility for free school meals.
- Stricter Income Verification Requirements: Congress is considering a proposal that would require schools to verify every free and reduced-price meal application, increasing administrative burdens and delaying meal benefits for eligible families.
SNA’s SY 2024/25 School Nutrition Trends Survey highlights that many school meal programs already face high operational costs, staff shortages, and inadequate federal funding—leaving them ill-equipped to manage these additional bureaucratic hurdles.
Biden Administration Sought to Expand Access
In contrast to these proposed cuts, the Biden administration expanded CEP in 2023, allowing more schools to provide free meals to all students. The administration also pushed to eliminate “junk” fees—processing charges that increase meal costs for low-income families.
School Nutrition Advocates Call for Congressional Support
During their meetings today with lawmakers, SNA representatives presented their 2025 Position Paper, calling on Congress to:
- Protect and expand CEP to ensure continued access to free meals for students in high-poverty schools.
- Increase federal meal reimbursements to help schools cover costs and meet upcoming nutrition standards.
- Address the growing issue of unpaid meal debt.
Research has consistently shown that universal free meals improve academic performance, student engagement, and even school discipline.
