Budget bill cuts food stamp benefits as Arizona school lunch prices rise

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — President Trump wants his spending plan passed by Congress by July 4. The GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill has many of the president’s top priorities, including tax breaks and more funding for the military and border security. To pay for it, lawmakers are making cuts to Medicaid and free and reduced school lunch.

School lunches are often the only nutritious meals lower-income children can get routine access to, according to nutrition experts. Those school lunches may soon be out of reach for tens of thousands more hungry Arizona students.

Jennifer Gordon is the child nutrition director at Laveen School District. She says low-income students could be a group hit hard by the bill. “With the proposed cuts to SNAP and to Medicaid, it’s going to be harder for families to qualify for those programs, which will then have a direct impact on them,” she said.

The bill proposed would cut about $1 trillion from SNAP and Medicaid. Under the bill, it would be harder for families to qualify for SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps. For families on food stamps, it’s easy to get access to free and reduced lunch programs in schools.

Scottsdale Unified School District announced the price of its school lunches will increase for the first time in eight years due to rising costs. Other school districts like Peoria Unified School District and Dysart Unified School District have not had to do that yet.

“It’s just a wait and see and at this point,” said Gordon. Nutrition experts are in a holding pattern as lawmakers battle over the bill.

Arizona Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani has previously said that while he wants to rein in wasteful spending, SNAP is critical and must remain protected.

Arizona Democrat Yassamin Ansari provided a statement:

“Donald Trump and Republicans are recklessly trying to take away vital SNAP benefits from over 126,000 people in AZ-03, ripping meals away from children, gutting our schools’ ability to feed our kids, and pushing more families into hunger. This is a cruel betrayal—all to give tax breaks to billionaires. I’ll continue to do everything I can to oppose these heartless policies.”

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