At No Kid Hungry, we know the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a critical program for addressing food insecurity and supporting families. However, many are not aware that it’s also an important program for schools. We’re working to connect SNAP to school systems so students and their families can access resources in trusted spaces while also bolstering education funding and expanding free school meals to more children.
Supporting eligible students and families to enroll in SNAP ensures food at home, food at school, and food in the community. SNAP benefits students and schools in many ways from boosting high school graduation rates to increasing education funding, like Title 1 funding, for schools.
SNAP confers eligibility to other federal nutrition benefits for children and families, like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), school meals, and Summer EBT. When a child receives SNAP or is in a household that does, they’re directly certified for free school meals, meaning they automatically qualify with no need for further application or information. The Farm Bill can help improve customer service and streamline cross-enrollment between public benefit programs with the same or similar eligibility—saving families and agency staff time and effort by foregoing the need to share and input the same information across multiple applications.
Direct certification is an important process for increasing school meal access. When students are directly certified for free school meals through a means-tested public benefits program (like SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid in some states), this contributes to their school having a higher Identified Student Percentage. This, in turn, increases the chance that their school can qualify and operate the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), allowing that school or school district with an identified need to serve no-cost school meals to all students. Serving all students free school meals increases access and lowers stigma, helping increase participation in school meals and ensuring that children have the fuel they need to focus and learn.
Many families are eligible for SNAP but are unenrolled because of various barriers and reasons. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that only 78% of eligible people receive SNAP. SNAP outreach and application assistance are important tools to ensure eligible families know about the program and get the support they need to apply. The Farm Bill can ensure we continue to close the SNAP participation gap by increasing funding for SNAP outreach, simplifying the requirements, and providing flexibility for organizations conducting this outreach to help people apply and maintain benefits in easy ways. Protecting flexibilities in the Farm Bill, like Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility that reduces administrative barriers in the application process, ensures eligible children receive the nutrition they need through SNAP and school meals.
Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa Bay, Florida, identified SNAP outreach and enrollment as an important way to support students and help their district expand school meal access. Coming out of the pandemic with the end of waivers that allowed all children to receive free school meals, Hillsborough Schools knew many students and families would not qualify for free meals but would still need those meals and struggle to pay for them. The district’s Student Nutrition Services identified students who were income-eligible for SNAP but not receiving it. They knew that increasing SNAP access for those students would not only support them with immediate food needs but also expand their ability to operate CEP at more schools in their district.
Student Nutrition Services brought in community partners Feeding Tampa Bay, mRelief, and Hispanic Services Council to help facilitate a district-wide outreach campaign that shared mRelief’s text message enabled eligibility screener and application process with families along with highlighting partners that could provide virtual or in-person application assistance.
In addition, the group focused on raising awareness through district and school communication channels. These included the School Health Advisory Committee and district PTAs, as well as bringing SNAP information to school pantries and food distribution events. Internally, the department also focused on extending SNAP direct certification benefits to siblings and household members. The Tampa Bay area was also impacted by Hurricane Ian in the summer of 2022, which resulted in some district students receiving Disaster SNAP during this period.
These collective efforts helped enroll and identify more than 12,000 students through SNAP direct certification. Through CEP school grouping, these 12,000 students allowed an additional 27 schools to operate CEP, resulting in an additional 30,000 students receiving free school meals in this new school year. That includes breakfast, lunch, and, in many schools, dinner too.
Hillsborough County School District plans to continue its SNAP outreach and enrollment efforts during the 2023-2024 school year. Student nutrition will continue to add partners and focus outreach on all eligible students not participating in SNAP. Through their efforts, they hope to one day operate CEP district-wide, allowing all 189,000 students to receive free school meals.
The Farm Bill is critical for ensuring SNAP reaches all eligible children and families. The upcoming reauthorization can help SNAP better support children and families in the following ways: maintaining and strengthening direct certification; promoting cross-program enrollment and coordination between public benefit programs with the same or similar eligibility (such as school meals, WIC, and Medicaid); and piloting innovative ways to improve access to SNAP in places, like schools, where families have trusted relationships and are already connected to resources.
∎