An update published every two months on No Kid Hungry Texas advocacy efforts and ways to take action to help end childhood hunger.
Stacie Sanchez, No Kid Hungry Texas Director
Hola, friends and advocates!
I am so excited to welcome you to the very first edition of our No Kid Hungry Texas advocacy update. After more than five years in this role, I’ve seen firsthand that while our state is big, our hearts for our children are even bigger. As we gear up for the upcoming legislative session, I wanted a better way for us to stay connected and share how we can work together to keep the Lone Star State strong.
Our mission is simple and non-partisan: making sure no kid in Texas goes hungry. The need has never been more urgent for our communities:
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The Big Picture: Texas currently leads the nation in food insecurity, with 5.3 million Texans affected. That is 1 in 6 households—a rate that has climbed to 17.6% just since last year.
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Rural Strength: Hunger hits our rural neighbors the hardest; 87% of the Texas counties with the highest food insecurity rates are in our rural areas.
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The High Cost of Doing Nothing: Texans pride ourselves on being smart with our resources, and right now, hunger is a drain on our economy. As Dr. Lauren Gambill explains, we are currently paying for expensive ER visits and hospital stays to treat “emergencies” that are actually just symptoms of malnutrition. Investing in meals isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s the fiscally responsible way to stop wasting taxpayer dollars in our healthcare system.
Despite these challenges, our bipartisan efforts—led by legislative hunger heroes like Representatives Armando Walle and Toni Rose—prove that when we put Texas kids first, we win. Thanks to our collective work:
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Eliminating Reduced-Price (ERP) Meals: In the 2023-2024 school year, over 7.7 million breakfast meals were served at no cost to families.
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A Statewide Milestone: We successfully passed legislation to eliminate the reduced-price category for both breakfast and lunch. Starting September 1, 2026, this will support over 150,000 Texas schoolchildren every single year.
This newsletter is a space for us—school nutrition teams, food banks, and every neighbor who wants to help. If there is something you want to see more of, please know that my inbox is always open.
Thank you for being in this fight with us. Let’s get to work!
With Texas heart and grit,
Stacie
No Kid Hungry Texas
Fighting Summer Hunger in Texas
While school meals are a critical source of nutrition during the academic year, the end of the school year often marks the beginning of the hungriest time for many children across Texas. Data shows the urgency of this need: 62% of Texas parents report difficulty affording enough nutritious food for their children when school is out, and 1 in 5 kids in Texas experiences food insecurity.
That’s why a central pillar of No Kid Hungry Texas’ advocacy efforts is pushing for the implementation of Summer EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) in Texas, a proven solution for summer hunger. Summer EBT would provide eligible families with $120 per child over the summer on a pre-loaded card to purchase groceries, helping bridge the gap when school meals are unavailable.
If implemented in Texas, the program could reach an estimated 3.75 million children and bring approximately $693 million in federal funding into local communities, supporting both families and local food retailers. Already operating in 38 states, Summer EBT has demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing summer hunger and strengthening food access, making it a powerful, evidence-based solution we are advocating to bring to every Texas child.
What Texas Families Are Saying
Kristal Webster is a mother of three & works at the Smithville Public Library. She and her husband, who works overnight shifts at Walmart, have built a stable but busy family life in Smithville since 2014.
“Summer EBT would just be amazing because you have to look at certain things. A lot of kids go to school kind of to eat, and I hate to say it like that, but then when they go to school, they’re getting those meals, not necessarily getting the same meals at home during the summer because you do have to stretch your budget and figure out, okay, kids have to eat regardless. There’s no way around it. So having that extra while they’re at home during the summer, they get to eat. The last thing we want is malnutrition children. So it’s, it is necessary. It’s needed. And I don’t understand why Texas doesn’t have it. It’ll be essential for a lot of families to have that summer EBT.”
Resources
- The Summer EBT Opportunity Map helps state law makers understand how many children could be impacted if Summer EBT is adopted in their state. Users can view data by county, state house, or state senate districts.
- The Summer EBT Implementation Tracker is a tool to help understand how states, territories, and Indian tribal organizations (ITOs) participating in Summer EBT have decided to operate Summer EBT to most effectively serve their eligible children and families.
- The Summer EBT 101 resource provides general information about the program.
- Most recent No Kid Hungry Texas Hunger Poll
We’d love to hear from you! Please take a moment to complete this quick 2-minute survey and share any questions, feedback, or suggestions for future newsletter content.
About No Kid Hungry Texas
No Kid Hungry Texas works across the state to ensure children have consistent access to the nutritious food they need to learn, grow, and thrive. We partner with schools and community organizations through grants, technical assistance, and resources that help strengthen school breakfast programs and expand access to summer meal programs.
Through advocacy, partnerships, and direct support for local communities, we work to advance long-term solutions that help connect children and families with reliable access to nutritious meals year-round.
Subscribe to our newsletter if you haven’t already to stay up to date on our latest advocacy efforts, policy updates, and ways you can help support the fight against childhood hunger. And if you know others who care about this work, forward this email to your neighbors, friends, and community members and encourage them to subscribe and join the fight too.
