"MAHA Promised Healthier Kids. But School Lunches May Deliver Less."

"Cuts to SNAP and farm-to-school programs under the Trump administration risk worsening childhood disease, nutrition experts warn." 

"The rise of Make America Healthy Again arrived with big promises for kids: an end to chronic disease, a focus on nutrition and healthier school meals. For school food professionals and public health advocates, it seemed like an unexpected win that could benefit the millions of children who rely on federal school meals, often the most nutritious — and sometimes the only reliable — food they receive all day. That push to improve children’s health from a Republican administration was all the more surprising, considering the political attacks Michelle Obama endured when she campaigned to improve school nutrition.

But those hopes are colliding with reality. Despite MAHA’s rhetoric, the Trump administration has cut programs supporting children’s health and school nutrition. In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture abruptly canceled the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement and Local Food for Schools programs, which together provided more than $1 billion to help schools and food banks buy produce, meat and dairy from local farms and ranches.

For food service directors like Kim Sieck in Iowa’s Gri​​nnell-Newburg school district, the fallout was immediate. Without farm-to-school funds, she can no longer add better tasting, locally sourced, nutrient dense microgreen sprouts to the fruit and vegetable bar, a hit with the kids and a win for anyone who has tried to get a child to eat vegetables. Gone also is the farm-fresh corn she served with a chicken pot pie bowl and the apples from a local orchard, which she used as an educational opportunity: “We explained this apple is different from what you get at the store. It came straight from the tree. It may have a few bumps, and it’s not bright red because it doesn’t have all that wax on it to preserve it.” "

Stacie Stukin reports for Capital & Main September 8, 2025. This article was produced in collaboration with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2025 Impact Fund for Reporting on Health Equity and Health Systems.