With federal SNAP benefits set to pause starting Saturday for an estimated 750,000 Alabamians — including about 350,000 children — school leaders are watching closely. Educators and child nutrition officials say the loss of food assistance could show up in classrooms as more students arrive hungry and less able to focus.
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The SNAP freeze is the latest federal issue to affect local schools and is the result of the now month-long federal shutdown. District leaders say hunger doesn’t stop at the schoolhouse door and worry that the economic setback, should the shutdown continue, could slow Alabama’s hard-won academic progress.
“It’s very, very concerning,” said Caycyce Davis, president of the Alabama School Nutrition Association and Child Nutrition Program director for Elmore County Schools. “You can’t teach a hungry child.”
“For instruction to be effective, basic needs have to be met — and nutrition is the most basic of all.”
‘Deeply concerned’
A+ Education Partnership Vice President Corinn O’Brien agreed.
“We are deeply concerned for Alabama’s kids and families as this SNAP funding freeze takes effect,” O’Brien said. “Anyone who has worked with children knows it’s hard for a hungry child to focus and learn. We have made so much progress as a state, and we don’t want to backslide.”
Alabama’s recent academic improvement is recognized nationally as part of the “Southern Surge.”
Davis said roughly 60% of Elmore County’s students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, and because the district is a Community Eligibility Provision system, every child receives free breakfast and lunch. Several schools also offer supper before students head home.
‘Tied’ hands
Still, she said, there is only so much that schools can do.
“Our hands are kind of tied. We can only serve food within the boundaries of the federal Child Nutrition Program.”
During the pandemic, schools were given permission to send food that would usually be eaten at school home with students. In Elmore County, Davis and her colleagues went all out to make sure students were fed, even stocking school buses with food and delivering it to surrounding communities.
While SNAP benefits will be frozen, school meal programs — also administered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture — are safe for now, according to Alabama Superintendent Eric Mackey.
‘Residual effects’
But that doesn’t mean schools won’t feel the effects of the SNAP freeze.
“We get residual effects,” Mackey said. “Obviously those children are coming to our schools, and if they’re not getting fed properly at home, then we have to deal with it at school.”
Gov. Kay Ivey’s office said the state will not create a replacement program, calling the pause a federal matter.
“Alabama does not have the money to do Congress’ job,” Ivey communications director Gina Maiola said.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Trisha Powell Crain and originally published by Alabama Daily News.
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