RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- As students across the Triangle return to the classroom this week, there are new questions about how cuts to SNAP benefits and food security programs might affect Wake County students.
On Monday afternoon, Wake County Commissioners heard a presentation from members of the county's Food Security Program on how federal policy could exacerbate hunger, and on Tuesday, several state lawmakers will join Food Bank officials for an update on SNAP's effect on students.
"It's absolutely imperative that we focus on this issue and we make sure as legislators that we have the opportunity to step up," said Zack Hawkins, a Democratic state lawmaker representing District 31, which covers eastern Durham County.
Hawkins has represented District 31 since 2019. Before that, he was a public school teacher in Durham, learning firsthand how food insecurity can affect students.
"So many students receive breakfast and lunch at school, and that's the only meals that they're guaranteed," he said.
Hawkins spoke with ABC11 outside Spring Valley Elementary in Durham on Monday ahead of Tuesday's news conference. That virtual event will address how SNAP cuts from the "One Big, Beautiful Bill" could affect North Carolina's most vulnerable public school students.
"Across the state, there will be about half a million children that are impacted in our schools, 1.5 million North Carolinians. About 200,000 of those are just in the Triangle," he said.
Jason Kanawati Stephany with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina said that any cuts to SNAP funds or eligibility could have even greater effects on students, since hundreds of thousands of them automatically qualify for free and reduced-cost school meals because of SNAP.
"So when their parents and their families get cut from those programs, they suddenly find themselves ineligible for free and reduced cost meals at lunch," he said.
With those cuts looming -- set to start as early as 2026 -- it would be up to state lawmakers to find the hundreds of millions in funding necessary to keep that safety net in place.
"The general assembly has time to be thoughtful about this and prioritize ensuring that kids aren't going to school hungry," Kanawati Stephany said.
It's a task that Hawkins said he believes the General Assembly is up to, but one that he says will require serious urgency.
"If you ask if I'm hopeful, yes, but it's only if we can go find the time to come back to Raleigh, pull ourselves together and figure it out," Hawkins said.