Federal cuts in SNAP could affect local schools

Las Cruces Public Schools is looking into how its funding could change since Pres. Donald Trump signed H.R. 1, the recent budget bill he signed on July 4.

The bill has provisions to cut SNAP — commonly referred to as food stamps — by $300 billion through 2034. SNAP, Medicaid and other forms of assistance are used to find out the poverty level of a district. This helps simplify the method of finding out how much assistance each district needs for school lunches.

In cases like LCPS, the district qualifies for Community Eligible Provision or CEP. This has the federal government reimburse the district for a percentage of the meals given to students.

Chief of Operations for LCPS Steve Rodriguez said that the district receives, “reimbursements for those that are on free lunches, so the students are not charged for that.

“That’s covered through there because they automatically qualify if they are on those benefits,” Rodriguez said.

While every school in the state is required by state law to provide free lunches since 2023, the possible lack of reimbursements from federal sources could mean the state, and the districts, would have to pick up the slack.

“We don’t have the confirmation to say yes, it is going to affect it, but it could,” Rodriguez said. “If people are losing their SNAP benefits or any benefits then that is going to affect our poverty rate of what we have for qualification for them.”

New Mexico Voices for Children Director of Policy Emily Wildau said that the universal school lunch program was designed to “fill the gaps from the reimbursement for the federal program.” With possible losses in SNAP benefits, it could be harder to get funds.

“If it is more challenging to directly certify students who are already receiving SNAP benefits as eligible for that program, that provides another barrier and more paperwork for families to fill out to make sure the schools are getting the funding,” Wildau said.

Better access to food at school not only helps feed students but has also been linked to better academic performance by some studies.

“When you don’t have students who are not worried about food or where their next meal is, that’s one less thing for a student to worry about where they can focus more on their learning,” Rodriguez said.

Kindergarten, sixth and ninth grade will start on July 25. The other grades will start school on July 28.