HISD to end universal free lunch at 33 schools after SNAP changes
Lunch will no longer be automatic at 33 HISD schools, and parents will have to file meal forms or pay as SNAP rule changes ripple into cafeteria budgets.
Families at 33 Houston ISD schools will no longer get universal free lunch in 2026-27 after federal SNAP changes knocked those campuses out of the program. Breakfast will still be free districtwide, but lunch will no longer be automatic for every student at the affected schools.
The campuses named so far are Baker Montessori, Briarmeadow Charter School, Bush Elementary School, Condit Elementary School, Harvard Elementary School, Helms Elementary School, Horn Elementary School, Kolter Elementary School, Mandarin Immersion Magnet School, Oak Forest Elementary School, Poe Elementary School, River Oaks Elementary School, Roberts Elementary School, Sinclair Elementary School and Travis Elementary School.
At schools outside the Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP, families must complete a Free/Reduced-Price Meal Application to determine eligibility. Students who qualify under household income and federal rules can still receive free or reduced-price meals, while families who do not qualify will have to pay for lunch. At CEP schools, breakfast and lunch remain free for all students; at non-CEP schools, the paperwork now sits between a child and a meal.
The shift follows tighter SNAP eligibility rules from President Trump’s changes to the program. Rice University's Kinder Institute counted about 155,000 fewer people in the Houston region eligible for SNAP than the year before, and ABC13 put the number of HISD students losing automatic free lunch at thousands when the district tightened eligibility. Katherine Byers of the Houston Food Bank tied the drop in automatic school meals to the federal government’s stricter SNAP requirements.
HISD’s nutrition guidance separates CEP campuses from schools that require household applications. Cy-Fair ISD and Spring Branch ISD keep CEP schools on their 2026-27 lists.
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