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SNAP cuts set to strain KY budget, may impact schools

Students standing in line at a school cafeteria, waiting to get their lunch. They carry backpacks and engage in casual conversation.
Felippe Lopes - stock.adobe.com
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Kentucky faces deep cuts to a key food support program with the passage of the budget reconciliation bill.

It is estimated the new budget will kick millions off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, and shift food and administrative costs onto states. Schools offering free breakfast and lunch may also see impacts to SNAP’s Community Eligibility Provision, which they can use when 25% of students qualify for SNAP. An early House committee proposal sought to raise that threshold to 60%.

Jordan Ojile, advocacy manager for Feeding Kentucky, said even without the change, planned SNAP cuts may still affect schools.

"If the number of students on SNAP and Medicaid falls – and for some of these schools, falls even a few students shy – the entire school will lose its free school meal reimbursement," Ojile explained. "It's not just the poorest of Kentucky children that'll be losing their meals at home when they lose their SNAP benefits. They’re going to be losing their meals at school, and their classmates are going to be caught in the collateral of that as well."

More than 1,100 schools in Kentucky participate in the Community Eligibility Provision, reaching over 580,000 students daily.

Kentucky saw $1.3 billion spent into the economy via SNAP last year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates SNAP produces $1.50 in economic activity for every dollar spent.