Food plays a vital role in everyone’s life, especially for growing children who need healthy meals every day to learn and thrive. It’s shocking to think that 1 out of 5 kids in the U.S. faces hunger. Even more troubling is the possibility that new proposals in Congress could make this situation worse.
In recent weeks, the U.S. House of Representatives drafted a budget resolution that proposes a staggering $230 billion in cuts to USDA programs, including those aimed at fighting hunger.
One popular proposal aims to eliminate a policy called Broad Based Categorical Eligibility (BBCE), which helps families with low-incomes cut through red tape so they can access the nutrition assistance they need through programs like SNAP, school meals and summer meals.
This could set us back in the fight against childhood hunger. Here’s why:
BBCE is not an automatic pathway to SNAP benefits. But it is an effective, practical policy that helps families enroll in SNAP if they’re already participating in other anti-poverty programs.
When you sync up the eligibility for these programs, it does a lot of good for families in need.
First, it reduces bureaucratic red tape, meaning families in need of benefits receive a streamlined application process.
It also helps families decrease their SNAP benefits as their wages begin to grow. Families seeking a way out of poverty while working in low-wage jobs have the time to phase off SNAP rather than grapple with a hard cut-off.
It’s estimated that restricting this policy—efforts that were led during the first Trump administration—would result in more than 3 million people, including children, losing access to SNAP benefits.
SNAP is one of the most effective tools for reducing childhood hunger. It gives families the ability to buy food on a budget, directly impacting food insecurity and improving health and educational outcomes. Kids who receive SNAP benefits are more likely to finish high school and stay physically healthy. Each year, SNAP helps lift millions of children out of poverty.
Kids whose families participate in SNAP are automatically enrolled in the school meals and summer meals programs, including Summer EBT. This helps ensure kids are able to receive the three daily meals they need year-round to grow up healthy and strong.
This means that restricting BBCE wouldn’t just impact access to food at home. Since SNAP is tied to eligibility for free school meals, nearly 1 million children across the U.S. could lose access to school meals. Although many of these kids would remain income eligible for free or reduced-price meals, experience tells us that far too many will fall through the cracks. Confusion about eligibility, complex paperwork, human error and stigma all create barriers to enrollment. And even the lower reduced-price meal cost can be a heavy burden for families that are saving every dime to cover their needs—rent, utilities and the gas they need to get to work.
Broad Based Categorical Eligibility works. It helps families work and build savings, increasing their financial stability and self-sufficiency. It ensures that their kids get the fuel they need to grow and reach their full potential—goals everyone can agree on.
