SLO County school cafeterias could see strain amid SNAP cuts. What to know
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Federal SNAP cuts could limit local CalFresh eligibility.
- Fewer CalFresh recipients may reduce school meal reimbursements.
- Eliminated programs and funding shifts heighten pressure on community partners.
School meal funding in San Luis Obispo County could be at risk after Congress approved a behemoth reconciliation bill that could yank food benefits away from millions of Americans.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law July 4 — and one part of the massive bill is slated to change how people qualify for the food benefits program known as SNAP, or in California, CalFresh.
While the changes won’t directly affect kids’ ability to access free school meals, which are guaranteed under California law, they could place added financial strains on local districts that rely on federal reimbursements to cover a portion of meal costs — and those strains would come at a time when schools are already struggling to manage overburdened budgets paired with other federal cuts.
The SNAP cuts could also increase food insecurity at home if families do start losing benefits, resulting in children showing up to school hungrier and less ready to learn.
“It’s terrible. It just breaks my heart,” Erin Primer, food services director for the San Luis Coastal school district. “I don’t know the true impact of what’s going to happen.”
How SNAP cuts could affect SLO County kids
On July 4, President Donald Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is set to slash SNAP funding by about $186 billion and make changes that may affect SLO County families.
Chiefly, the bill changes eligibility rules for CalFresh recipients with children.
Under the new law, CalFresh recipients who have dependents older than 13 years old would need to work at least 20 hours a week in order to retain their benefits, according to SLO County CalFresh officials. Previously, CalFresh recipients with dependents under 18 were exempt from the work requirements.
If parents don’t meet these work requirements — and don’t qualify for any other exemptions — they could be at risk of losing their benefits.
The new law also eliminates CalFresh eligibility for some groups of lawful non-citizens, including refugees, asylum seekers and trafficking victims, a letter sent to counties by the California Department of Social Services showed.
The Big Beautiful Bill is also set to shift some administrative costs back to the state — and by October 2027, states with error rates higher than 6% could wind up shelling out anywhere between 5% and 15% of the cost of allotted benefits, the letter said. California’s most recent error rate was 10.98%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
According to a “Myth vs. Fact” sheet published online by the White House, the Trump administration claims the SNAP changes included in the Big Beautiful Bill promote work and responsibility.
The White House denied assertions that the changes would cause people to go hungry.
“The mission of the program has failed: SNAP was intended to be temporary help for those who encounter tough times,” the website read. “Now, it’s become so bloated that it is leaving fewer resources for those who truly need help. We are committed to preserving SNAP for the truly needy.”
CalFresh program manager Rob Koch told The Tribune that it will take time to know what exact impacts the bill will have on SLO County. The local office is waiting for the changes to go into effect and waiting to see how the state responds.
The local office is dedicated to helping reduce food insecurity by supporting CalFresh recipients and helping them retain their eligibility, officials said.
“We, of course, are going to do our best to keep everyone aided on CalFresh as best we can, using all the appropriate exemptions that can qualify for each case,” Koch said.
As of July, there were over 4,500 school-age children receiving CalFresh benefits in SLO County, according to CalFresh officials. That accounts for around 14.5% of total recipients countywide.
And CalFresh has seen an uptick in local demand. Over the last year, there’s been a 16% increase in SLO County CalFresh enrollees, according to the county.
That equates to over $6 million in CalFresh benefits being issued in SLO County each month — and those dollars ultimately wind up circulating through the local economy as recipients buy from local grocery stores and farmers markets, CalFresh officials told The Tribune.
How SNAP funding is tied to school meals
A reduction in CalFresh eligibility among families would not only limit kids’ meal availability at home, but could also poke another hole in local school budgets.
While CalFresh isn’t directly tied to the availability of free school meals in SLO County — which schools are required to provide under California’s universal meals program — the federal government does provide back-end funding to reimburse schools for a portion of their school meal costs.
These subsidies are issued based on how many students are eligible for federal free or reduced price meals — and a primary way that students qualify is if they receive CalFresh benefits, according to Primer.
If students start losing their eligibility, schools may not be able to receive as many reimbursements, leaving a gap in school budgets that are already strained by other federal changes in addition to local and statewide funding challenges.
“A student who is no longer directly certified would no longer receive the federal reimbursement,” Primer said. “The state would have to take on additional cost to, you know, to cover that.”
Meanwhile, school meals would become even more vital for students who no longer had access to food benefits.
“It’s going to have a much larger ripple effect with the direct benefit loss for millions of Americans who won’t receive the SNAP eligibility,” Primer said. “So, we’re very concerned that households are going to see food budgets go up, we’ll see higher rates of food insecurity, we’re going to see the shift in the state budget.”
Joe Koski, assistant superintendent of student services for the SLO County Office of Education, told The Tribune that students aren’t able to learn well when they’re hungry.
“We know there’s a direct correlation between a healthy diet and sufficient food and the brain’s ability to process and function at a maximum,” Koski said. “Anything that impacts an underserved community having less access to sufficient food, in my opinion, is a horrible outcome, and it directly affects learning.”
The SNAP cuts aren’t the first federal change to affect local school cafeterias.
In March, the Trump administration cut funding for the Local Food For Schools program, which helped SLO County schools purchase food that’s locally grown.
According to Primer, the Trump administration has been laying the groundwork for this and other changes since the start of his second term.
“We’ve been bracing ourselves for what is going to happen,” she said.
Nutrition education will also see changes
Another program that’s being cut by the Big Beautiful Bill is the SNAP-Ed program, known in California as CalFresh Healthy Living.
The program has served local communities with nutrition education, particularly helping CalFresh recipients know how to make the best use of their monthly benefit allotments.
But SLO County’s program, which was run by the Public Health Department, was actually eliminated prior to the Big Beautiful Bill’s passage as a result of countywide budget cuts, according to the CalFresh office.
The cuts at both the local and federal level will put more pressure on community organizations to fill the gaps. The SLO Food Bank is already preparing to double the amount of meals it serves, The Tribune reported earlier this week.
And Koch told The Tribune the CalFresh office and its local partners — known as the CalFresh Alliance — will be picking up some of the slack to continue helping recipients optimize their benefits and eat healthy meals, but it likely won’t be the same.
“We do have a close partnership with school districts,” Koch said. “Traditionally it’s been through public health. That partnership, because of the funding cuts to public health, will have to be carried on between the school districts and Cal Fresh Alliance as a whole.”
Primer told The Tribune that the combination of cuts will be “dismal” for the kids who previously benefited from the program.
“It’s not just the dollars they’re going to … not get for their food, but these support programs to teach them what to do with those foods — what to do with the whole spaghetti squash they get from the food bank, how to turn, you know, beans and rice into a delicious meal,” Primer said. “These are things that our community is going to miss.”
The CalFresh office encouraged anyone who thinks they might be eligible for benefits to apply as soon as possible and to take advantage of other community resources.
CalFresh will be providing information about its program at a resource fair in Oceano on Aug. 7 where students can receive backpacks and school supplies, the office said.
Families with children are also encouraged to apply for the SUN Bucks program through their school district to get extra help affording food during the summer months, Koch said.
Applications are open through September. Current CalFresh recipients should be automatically enrolled.
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