Published September 30, 2025

The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission recently released its Make Our Children Healthy Again strategy. While the document includes 128 recommendations across 20 pages, it misses a critical opportunity to improve child health. It does not focus on expanding access to the federal nutrition programs as a key strategy to improve child health and address hunger and food insecurity — a problem that affects nearly 14 million children in the U.S.  

The federal nutrition programs were created in response to America’s hunger crisis, and decades of research confirm their essential role in improving child health. Expanding access to these programs remains one of the most effective strategies to ensure children can grow, learn, and thrive. Yet, one glaring omission in the commission’s recommendations is any serious acknowledgment of the importance and impact of these programs. The omission is especially dangerous at a time when the same administration has already weakened essential basic needs supports for working-class Americans and their children. Cuts to Medicaid, K–12 education, and SNAP place the health of our children, and the strength of our workforce, at risk. Congress must step in where the MAHA Commission has failed to advance policies that expand access to the federal nutrition programs to tackle poverty-driven hunger and strengthen food security for families and children. 

Breakdown of MAHA Strategy 

The commission’s strategy provides few details on how or when implementation of the outlined broad priorities will occur or whether resources will be allocated. For example, the document notes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will prioritize the use of whole, healthy foods across 16 nutrition programs but it does not specify how this will be achieved or whether additional funding will be provided. 

It also overlooks the realities of working Americans and the challenges they face, such as rising food prices, inflation, and persistent poverty, all of which directly shape children’s health outcomes. It neglects the fact that children do not live in isolation — Their well-being depends on the stability and resources of their caregivers. 

By overlooking hunger and food insecurity, the MAHA Commission’s strategy fails to address some of the key root causes driving diet-related diseases. 

What the Strategy Includes and Where it Falls Short 

Dietary Guidelines for Americans: 

  • Update the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) in a concise, user-friendly format and reform how the guidelines are developed. Launch an education campaign based on the updated guidelines emphasizing the role of nutrition in preventing chronic disease and promoting whole foods. 

The DGAs serve as the science-based framework for national nutrition policies and directly influence meal standards in school meals and other federal programs. While Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. has called for the DGAs to be more concise, the guidelines’ purpose is not simplification, but rather to provide comprehensive, evidence-based direction for improving public health. Numerous consumer-friendly resources already exist to translate the DGAs into practical advice. 

School Meals:  

  • Removes restrictions on whole milk in schools. 
  • Eliminates mandatory reduced-fat requirements in federal nutrition programs. 
  • Improves the farm-to-school grants process to connect local producers with schools. 
  • Limits or prohibits petroleum-based food dyes, especially in school meals. 
  • Works with states to fast-track approvals to strengthen regional meat infrastructure and improve access to fresh protein in schools and communities. 
  • Work with states and schools on an awareness campaign with tools to implement best practices such as increasing physical activity and improving nutrition options.  
  • Improve access to whole, healthy foods in government-funded nutrition programs and meals, including in school meals, prisons, and VA hospitals.  

For millions of children, particularly those from low-income households, school meals are the most reliable source of nutritious food each day. Schools need sustained increased funding to move toward implementing any of the recommendations, including more scratch cooking and providing more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other nutrient-rich foods. 

WIC and CACFP: 

  • Increase breastfeeding rates, through WIC and other policies. 
  • Promote healthy meals in child care settings through collaboration between the USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and the Child Care and Development Fund. 
  • Implement the new dietary guidelines through supporting access to USDA’s CACFP and school meal programs in Head Start providers and provide supplemental funding opportunities to support the provision of whole, healthy foods in Head Start programs. 

This section is notable as one of the few instances where the strategy explicitly references the need for “supplemental funding”. Providing additional funding is a critical factor for meaningful implementation of this and most of the other recommendations.  

SNAP 

  • USDA will provide states with technical assistance in SNAP waiver development and implementation to restrict the purchase of junk food and reorient the programs towards better nutrition.  
  • USDA will develop options for MAHA Boxes to get whole, healthy food to SNAP participants. 

SNAP is essential to reducing poverty and improving the nutrition and health for millions of families. The MAHA strategy’s recommendations move the program in the wrong direction. Attempts to restrict food choices have historically proven burdensome, stigmatizing, and ineffective —and today, they are more harmful than ever. States are already struggling under the weight of new administrative costs from H.R. 1, which requires them to now cover 75 percent of SNAP’s administrative funding and prepare for cost-sharing. The priority for states should be managing these obligations without incurring additional expenses that drain resources, drive retailers out of the program, increase food insecurity, and divert staff time away from critical tasks like reducing error rates and maintaining timeliness.  

Policy should focus on expanding incentives for healthy purchases while preserving participants’ autonomy and dignity. Pilot projects, such as Iowa’s recent food box program for kids, which replaced participation in the evidence-based Summer EBT Program, demonstrate the high costs and poor results of restrictive models compared to established federal nutrition programs. 

Protect and Strengthen Nutrition Programs to Improve Health Outcomes 

Federal nutrition programs have had decades of bipartisan support because of mountains of evidence showing their power to reduce poverty, strengthen local economies, and improve health. Policymakers must continue this commitment by protecting and strengthening these programs, not weakening them. Only by expanding and modernizing these proven supports and recognizing that children’s health depends on the well-being of their families can we ensure that all children have the nutrition and stability they need to grow, learn, and thrive.  

Congress must tap into its history of bipartisan commitment expand access to federal nutrition programs by repealing the historic cuts to SNAP made during budget reconciliation, and by continuing to protect and strengthen school meals and other child nutrition programs. If enacted, the Restoring Food Security Act would reestablish SNAP’s federal guarantee, restore eligibility for vulnerable groups, and prevent states from shouldering unsustainable costs. Without it, millions will face deepened poverty and hunger, while states and communities bear the fallout. 

Take Action: Restore SNAP Benefits  

 Use this link to send a pre-populated email to your Members of Congress, urging them to oppose any Farm Bill that fails to restore recent SNAP cuts.