‘Kids don’t need to eat lunch’: Trump pauses $1 billion in funding for school lunches, food banks

Two federal programs that help schools, childcare institutions, and food banks purchase from local farmers have been chopped by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), all thanks to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

$660 million worth of budget was slashed for this year’s Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program. Under this program, the USDA awards states with funds to purchase from their local farmers. The food goes to schoolchildren and childcare institutions. The cancellation of this program’s funding will cut off funding to many states, which signed an agreement with the USDA over it.

Meanwhile, the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program also funds local farmers. But instead of schools, local farmers under this program supply food banks from underserved communities. This latter program, which was supposed to receive $420 million in funding, was also cancelled. In total, $1 billion worth of funding was cut from both programs combined.

Politico confirmed that funding “is no longer available, and those agreements will be terminated following 60-day notification.”

Needless to say, slashing these programs—targeted to feed vulnerable populations—enraged social media. After all, several states will be affected by this slash to varying degrees. One X user sarcastically commented, “Kids don’t need to eat lunch.”

Others on social media aired out similar frustrations online. Another aggravated commenter rhetorically asked, “Starving needy kids is pro-life?”

Social media users aren’t the only ones appalled at the decision to defund both programs. Governor JB Pritzker from Illinois wrote on X, “Fun isn’t your family farm going out of business or your grocery prices being driven up. All because Trump sold out farmers for his friends at Mar-a-Lago.”

What happened to Make America Healthy Again?

Representative Donald Norcross from New Jersey also chimed in on X. “Cutting the USDA Local Food Purchase Assistance and Local Food for Schools programs means less fresh produce, protein, and dairy for those in need. In our community, this will have a devastating impact on our community food banks. We should be strengthening our local food supply, not gutting it.

The programs Trump and Elon Musk-led DOGE were allocated so that states can “purchase local, unprocessed, or minimally processed domestic foods.” This vision seems to be in line with Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s (RFK) Make America Healthy Again mission. Despite this alignment, the USDA concluded both programs “no longer effectuate federal agency priorities.”