Donald Trump’s bragging about the decline in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program enrollment rests on two things: the falling number of people needing food aid that started under President Obama as the economy improved, and Trump’s own plans to increase food insecurity by stripping millions of people of food aid. Kids are one of the groups that will be hit hardest, under a Trump administration plan to block states from expanding eligibility to fit their economies.
Trump’s plan to end broad-based categorical eligibility, which allows states to raise income eligibility levels and waive asset tests so that, for instance, people can get SNAP while still having a car to get to work, would kick three million people off of SNAP and take automatic free school lunches from a million kids. A high school teacher and union leader from West Virginia told Congress on Thursday that the kids who’ll be affected are “struggling as it is, so when we add this new layer to their everyday routine of 'How am I going to get food? How am I going to eat?' it just adds a harmful burden for these kids.”
Nearly all of the kids who lose automatic access to free school lunch will still be eligible for free school lunch—their parents will just have to fill out paperwork to get it. But there’s nothing “just” about added paperwork for families struggling to get by, burdened by constant worry and hunger and exhaustion. Never mind families affected by the opioid epidemic.
By allowing families to remain eligible for SNAP and free school lunches, broad-based categorical eligibility “creates efficiency and reduces administrative burdens on state agencies and schools, but most importantly it encourages work,” No Kid Hungry’s Lisa Davis testified Thursday. “It helps low-income families move out of poverty and build financial security. It allows them to accumulate modest assets to weather an unexpected financial crisis. It also ensures that their children can receive the nutrition they need at home and at school.”
There are two huge points there: the Trump administration’s plan will lead to added paperwork and administrative costs for the agencies that oversee SNAP and school lunches, and—as Davis said, more importantly—the Trump administration’s plan will make it harder for families to get ahead and get out of poverty.
The current system, the one Trump is changing, ”enables families that have worked, saved and hit a rough patch to get the help they need without having to spend every penny they have in the bank," explained Robert Gordon, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump’s plan will hit a million people who are already food insecure and push another million into food insecurity, one expert estimated. That will increase healthcare costs, because poor nutrition makes people sick. And no, food banks and food pantries are not going to be able to keep up with the need created—which the people who run them would be the first to tell you.