New eligibility requirements force district to cancel free lunches at 33 schools, HISD says

On Monday, thousands of Houston ISD students will go without free school lunch after the federal government tightened eligibility requirements for SNAP benefits, according to Katherine Byers with the Houston Food Bank.

“There was a belief that not enough individuals who participated in SNAP were working, and the fact is the overwhelming majority of people who are participating in that program work,” Byers said.

According to a study by Rice University, between 2025 and 2026, 155,000 fewer people are eligible for SNAP in Houston because of those changes. Rice found more than half that number are children…

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