As a former educator, I’ve seen firsthand how hunger sabotages a child’s ability to learn. I was the teacher who always had peanut butter and crackers in my desk drawer—for the student who couldn’t concentrate, the one constantly asking for water to ease an empty stomach. But hunger in schools isn’t a classroom problem—it’s a community issue that demands a systemic response.

That’s why I am deeply concerned about recent proposals at the federal level to drastically cut Medicaid and SNAP, two programs that form the backbone of food and health security for families across North Carolina. These cuts wouldn’t just harm individual households—they would directly affect school systems like Durham County’s that rely on federal metrics to serve free meals to students.

Rev. Kim Moss Credit: Courtesy of the subject

Last year, Durham Public Schools joined the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). CEP is funded through a mix of federal reimbursements. Schools with a high percentage of students already enrolled in safety-net programs like SNAP and Medicaid qualify to offer meals at no cost to all students—no applications, no stigma.

The more students who are “directly certified” through these programs, the more sustainable CEP becomes. But if federal policy shrinks access to SNAP or Medicaid, schools risk falling below the threshold—and losing the program entirely. This puts Durham’s wise move to CEP at risk and would potentially bring back meal applications, tracking school lunch debt, and reintroducing the stigma that often deters kids from eating at all.

In a state where one in five children experiences hunger—and in some rural areas, it’s closer to one in three—this kind of rollback would be devastating.

My work fighting hunger started at the Durham Teen Center and continued through Backpack Buddy programs and food distributions at churches. I’ve seen the power of a meal in a child’s life. Today, I’m proud to support efforts like School Meals for All NC, a statewide coalition advocating for universal access to school meals. But the success of these efforts hinges on stable federal support for the programs that serve as the foundation.

When kids are hungry, they can’t learn. It’s that simple. And when we build systems that ensure every child is nourished, we build stronger classrooms, families, and communities.

If we care about education, equity, and our children’s futures, we must protect the programs that keep them fed.

As one local school board member said, “Feed these babies so they can learn and not be hungry during the day.” We must ensure that happens—not just in Durham, but across North Carolina.

Rev. Kim Moss is a Durham resident, senior pastor at Stoney Creek AME Church in Elon and Second Vice President of the North Carolina NAACP.

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