More than 5.5 million Americans have already lost SNAP benefits under the 2025 law. Now the USDA is proposing another change that could knock 6.3 million more people off food stamps, including families who currently qualify through state welfare programs.
The school lunch impact is getting buried in the food stamp numbers. USDA estimates 1.78 million children would lose their automatic eligibility for free school meals if their household loses SNAP eligibility. Most would probably still qualify, but their parents would have to fill out separate applications. The department estimates 93,000 children could be moved from free to reduced-price meals, and another 28,000 could lose free meals altogether.
The Trump administration is moving forward with a proposal that would remove assistance from families already receiving other types of federal aid.
More than 6 million Americans could lose SNAP benefits, and nearly 2 million children could lose access to free school lunches. pic.twitter.com/eeWlNika8k
— ABC News (@ABC) November 11, 2026
The Trump administration has proposed new restrictions on the nation’s largest food assistance program that could leave millions more Americans without benefits.
The proposal would eliminate automatic eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, for… pic.twitter.com/bTtYrThqYL
— PBS News (@NewsHour) November 11, 2026
So a family could lose food assistance, then be told to fill out more paperwork to keep its children fed at school. And this comes while some school districts are already reporting rising lunch debt and losing access to programs that provide free meals to every student. The USDA proposal is not final, but the administration’s own estimate puts millions of households in the crosshairs.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-11-10/pdf/2026-22936.pdf
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