State-Level Shielding: Raleigh’s long-overdue budget invests in critical tech infrastructure to lower SNAP payment error rates, shielding state coffers from massive potential federal penalties under the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Targeted Wins for Kids: The budget secures essential stopgaps for children by locking in the state match for SUN Bucks summer meal cards and establishing a CEP Meal Incentive Program to help schools afford universal free meals.
Unfunded Local Burdens: While protecting state liabilities, the budget leaves all 100 counties to absorb doubling administrative costs for SNAP and provides just $25 million for the Healthy Opportunities Pilot — less than a third of what advocates requested after a year-long shutdown.
It was more than two years overdue, but North Carolina lawmakers finally passed a budget that was signed into law by Gov. Josh Stein earlier this month.
Taking so long to pass a budget was more than a national embarrassment. In the hunger context, it effectively compounded the slew of federal cuts that have taken place since Donald Trump returned to the White House. For example, food pantries and school nutrition programs were left to absorb the abrupt loss of funding for local food purchasing agreements.
And they had to do so all while operating at funding levels frozen since 2023.
In the battle against hunger, there were some significant wins, but the budget also came up short in a few crucial areas.
Investing in SNAP infrastructure: Federal legislation passed by Republicans last summer threatens the very existence of SNAP. People are already being bureaucratically squeezed out by stricter work requirements. States will see their share of administrative costs double later this year. In 2028, states with higher payment error rates will need to cover a portion of benefits.
North Carolina’s payment error rates have hovered around 10 percent. Stein’s office reported the state could eventually be on the hook for $700 million more just to keep SNAP available in North Carolina. The budget is investing now in updating the technology infrastructure needed to administer SNAP, ostensibly to help bring down that payment error rate.
Securing SUN Bucks: Making sure children are fed during summer months when school is out has to be a top priority, and the legislature checked that box. The budget locks in the state match for the program, providing more than 1 million children who are on a free or reduced meal program with a one-time $120 prepaid card per child.
Patching farm-to-school pipeline: About a year and a half after the Trump administration ended federal programs for local food purchasing for schools and food banks, the state budget allocated $2.5 million to help shore up that pipeline that connects food from local farms to elementary school cafeterias. However, the budget does not fund statewide SNAP Double Bucks and FarmShare programs.
Helping feed more schoolchildren: The federal Community Eligibility Provision allows schools to serve free meals to students without collecting applications from individual households. However, the federal government doesn’t automatically cover the full 100 percent. To prevent instances of schools opting out of the program entirely if they couldn’t cover the gap, the budget created a CEP Meal Incentive Program that targets eligible schools that did not participate in the CEP in fiscal year 2023-24 and dedicates state funds to bridge the gap.
By supplementing the federal formula with a state match, the program effectively raises the reimbursement rate to 100 percent, allowing hesitant districts to feed every student without blowing a hole in their cafeteria budgets.
100 counties left to fend for themselves: In North Carolina, SNAP is administered at the county level. Investing in state-level administrative technology was an important step in protecting the program from one of the most harmful elements of the “Big Beautiful Bill.” However, the budget did not address that counties will soon see their share of administrative costs double, leaving all 100 to absorb those costs while they continue to navigate the additional bureaucratic elements already put in place.
Failing to make good on Healthy Opportunities: The budget allocates $25 million to restart the state’s Healthy Opportunities Pilot. The program was part of the state’s Medicaid expansion and helps connect low-income people with healthier foods to reduce their medical costs.
The funds budgeted for HOP were $55 million less than pilot managers and advocates asked for. Simply put, it’s unacceptable for lawmakers to not even meet a third of the request when the years-long impasse in passing a budget caused the program to be shuttered entirely for a year.
Some good was done on the hunger front. State lawmakers chose to build a buffer around the state-level fiscal liabilities that will result from the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The opportunity cost, however, was fully shielding local food pantries, counties, and community health networks.
State funding provides real relief to school-aged kids and protects the state from immediate federal penalties, but it shifts the heavy lifting onto county Department of Social Services offices, local tax dollars, and frontline nonprofits.
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