RELEASE: Trump Administration’s OBBBA Cuts Free School Meals, Costing Families $2,000 Yearly

Washington, D.C. — American children risk losing access to free school meals due to implementation of the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), according to a comprehensive new analysis from the Center for American Progress. The sweeping federal legislation could force a typical family with two kids to spend $1,890 annually on school-offered meals, according to CAP data. The OBBBA introduced historic cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid, triggering a catastrophic ripple effect: As families lose health and food benefits, children may lose their automatic eligibility status for free school lunches and breakfasts. These losses scale up rapidly, threatening to strip entire schools or districts of their Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) status, which allows schools to offer free meals for all students and currently serves more than 25 million public schoolers. Other key findings from CAP’s analysis include: In the 2024-25 school year, around 33.9 million public school students were eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch either through individual eligibility or school participation in CEP. If they lose access to free school meals, the typical American family with two kids can expect to spend nearly $1,900 per year for school-offered meals or more than $2,200 for packed meals. More than 4 million people have already lost their SNAP benefits. As more students lose their eligibility, entire school districts are at risk of losing eligibility for universal free meals under the CEP. More than 49,000 public schools participated in the CEP in the 2024-25 school year, reaching more than 25 million students. The report includes a state-by-state breakdown of the financial burden that families will face if their kids lose access to school meal programs, along with policy recommendations for state lawmakers seeking to minimize fallout. “Taking food away from hungry children in the middle of a national affordability crisis is both economically backward and cruel,” said Paige Shoemaker DeMio , senior policy analyst for K-12 Education Policy at CAP and co-author of the report. “Yet while the current administration funnels billions of dollars into foreign conflicts, it’s also actively defunding the health and academic success of American kids.” “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 CAP and co-author of the report. “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.” Read the report : “ Congressional Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill Threatens Access to Free School Meals ” by Paige Shoemaker DeMio, Mimla Wardak, and Evan Yi For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert , contact Mishka Espey at [email protected] .