Making America Hungry Again

Starving schools and food banks while claiming to care about public health

Photo by Megan Thomas on Unsplash

While the Trump Administration claims to be focused on policies that will “Make America Healthy Again,” the reality is much different.

For the millions of American kids who rely on school meals as a key part of their daily nutrition intake, Trump’s actions are harmful.

Musk's War on Farmers and Hungry Kids

Jessica Winter explores this dynamic in a recent piece in the New Yorker.

But, in the case of Bardwell’s abandoned cucumbers and cabbages, the mortal blow was struck by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in March, when it abruptly terminated a billion dollars in Biden-era funding that had helped food banks, schools, and child-care centers procure fresh food from local farmers. (The U.S.D.A. stated that the programs “no longer effectuate the goals of the agency.”) Bardwell Farms earned about two hundred thousand dollars selling vegetables through these federal programs last year, and expected to make a little more than that in 2025.

The losers in Trump’s America? Small farmers, food banks, and public schools.

The winners? Not at all clear.

Nearly thirty million children participate in the National School Lunch Program, and more than two-thirds of them are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

That’s a pretty big impact - that is, the Trump team is hurting a lot of kids across the country by ending this one program.

The termination of the U.S.D.A. programs reportedly cost Minnesota more than seventeen million dollars over the next three years. “All the cuts really shake the farmers’ trust,” Haag said. “Farmers have a hard job. That’s why I quit. No one needs to make marketing these crops any harder. It makes farmers and rural communities feel forgotten.”

In addition to disappearing the U.S.D.A. programs, the Trump Administration will also oversee deep slashes to the SNAP food-assistance program, as laid out in the Big Beautiful Bill. The SNAP cuts will mean that fewer children will be automatically eligible to receive free breakfast and lunch at school, and fewer schools will be able to continue offering universal free-meal programs. MAHA’s stated commitment to improving child nutrition and the Administration’s antipathy toward social services are apparently incompatible.

And, in states like Tennessee, where policymakers appear to be particularly mean, kids also suffer in the summer:

Why Doesn't Bill Lee Want to Feed Hungry Kids?

Lee rejected $75 million in federal funds that would have supported a program to add funds to EBT cards for families whose kids receive free/reduced lunch during the school year.

Instead, Lee will create a program that will serve only 15 of Tennessee’s 95 counties and leave out 675,000 kids. The state financial obligation is nearly identical in both programs.