NPR: As millions of kids lose SNAP food benefits, free school meals are also at risk

When Republican lawmakers secured cuts to the United States’ largest food assistance program last year, Paige Shoemaker DeMio wasn’t worried about children going hungry just at home — but at school.

“Anytime we’re hearing about cuts to SNAP or Medicaid, we’re worried about what’s going to be the domino effect of this,” she says.

Shoemaker DeMio is a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. She usually focuses on K-12 education, but in recent months, she has been following the changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps.

That’s because SNAP connects children with other critical resources, such as free breakfast and lunch at school. So when a family loses access to food assistance, the family’s child may stop automatically receiving free food at school. And when scores of families fall off SNAP, universal free meal programs at tens of thousands of schools fall into jeopardy.

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