According to a May 27, 2026 report by the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), 74% of school districts are concerned about the effect on school meals from looming federal budget cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid. In fact, according to FRAC, children are set to lose direct certification for free school meals as families lose access to SNAP and the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the One Big, Beautiful Bill would wind up reducing SNAP participation by roughly 2.4 million people in an average month over the 2025-2034 period and, in the last year, in the 12 states with available data the number of children receiving SNAP food assistance has dropped by over 700,000 since the law was enacted last year.

In addition, to make matters worse school districts have reported that infrastructure challenges limit their ability to increase school meal participation, with over 80% of the 96 surveyed districts reporting high food and labor costs in the 2025-26 school year.

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