More than half a million Texans have lost SNAP. Most are children. Who's helping feed hungry kids?

Outside E.B. Comstock Middle School in Dallas, cars line up down the block, waiting for a truck to arrive stocked with fresh vegetables, milk and meat.

Each month, the school's students pitch in to help local families load the food into their vehicles.

Sometimes, they encounter their own family in the line needing help.

Marta Carbal cares for five grandchildren after school and says that to pay rent, she's had to cut back on food.

"It's a few more things for them in the house," she said of the items she receives each month at the campus.

Further down the line, Karen Johnson waits with a young girl in the passenger seat.

"This is my granddaughter. I take care of her 24/7. Her mom passed, and so she's with me," she said.

Johnson's pension, she said, makes her ineligible for federal food assistance.

"Because of the income," she explains, "and trust me, it's not that much."

So, she and her granddaughter rely on these charitable programs.

"To have enough food to feed her and 'cause everything's gone so high, you know," she said.

"Texas leads nation in hunger"

 Food banks say the demand for their services is on the rise.

"A lot more schools are reaching out because they recognized that there's a need," said Tyler Miller with the North Texas Food Bank.

The latest data from Feeding America shows roughly one in four children in North Texas now have limited access to food, jeopardizing their health, their development and their performance in school.

"For the third consecutive year, the data shows that Texas leads the nation in hunger," announced NTFB President and CEO Tricia Cunningham at a press conference in July.

The situation, food banks warn, is getting worse.

"We haven't seen food costs rise the way it's rising right now," said Tarrant Area Food Bank (TAFB) President and CEO Julie Butner.

Together, NTFB and TAFB serve 25 counties in an area where the number of children going hungry has grown significantly, from an estimated 358,000 in 2021 to 500,000 in 2024, the most recent data available. 

Both food banks have sounded the alarm about cuts to federal funding.

More than 600,000 Texans have lost federal food assistance

"One of the things I am very concerned about is the reduction in government support," said Cunningham.

"Food banks cannot fill the gap for a federal program. We just, we just don't have those kind of resources," said Butner.

The "One Big Beautiful Bill," signed into law last year, launched a massive overhaul of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as SNAP or food stamps.

The White House, at the time, claimed "the fraud rate is high" and that the program has become "so bloated that it is leaving fewer resources for those who truly need help."  

The bill added work requirements for able-bodied adults between 55 and 64 years old, parents or caregivers with children over the age of 14, veterans, adults experiencing homelessness, and young adults aging out of foster care. 

According to data from Texas Health and Human Services, in the year since, 642,822 Texans have lost SNAP benefits. More than half — 344,050 of them — have been children. 

In Dallas alone, 33,565 children have been affected. 

NTFB estimated 52% of people it sees now don't qualify for government assistance, leaving it as their only source for help.

"Food banks were never designed to be the first line of defense," said Cunningham, who warns they cannot fill the government's role. 

Texas needs to absorb "significant" costs to continue snap

The biggest changes to SNAP, though, have yet to take effect. 

For decades, the federal government has covered half the cost of administering the SNAP program. 

Starting Oct. 1, it'll shrink its share, leaving individual states with three-quarters of the bill. 

"These federal changes have a significant impact on the state budget," warned Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Stephanie Muth during a July meeting of the Texas Senate Finance Committee.

Starting next year, the federal government will also begin penalizing states with what it considers high error rates — anything over 6% — by having them pay out a portion of SNAP benefits, too.

Right now, 41 states are over that threshold, including Texas, with an error rate of 9.34%. 

"Many are confusing that with fraud," said Cunningham, who's been trying to educate lawmakers in a push to delay the penalty from being enforced for another two years. "Error rates is not fraud. Error rates means that whenever the application came in, someone made an error." 

Sometimes, that error means recipients were underpaid. 

Regardless, the cost to Texas would be big. 

Muth estimates, in total, the changes could require the state to pay an additional $1.7 to $2.1 billion over the next two years to continue SNAP, or more than $800 million annually.

Food banks expanding programs

Food banks have been ramping up their efforts to reach those most likely to be impacted. 

They've expanded partnerships with schools to grow programs, like Food 4 Kidz, which delivers snacks to 255 campuses across Texas. 

"Shelf-stable milk, applesauce, granola bar, trail mix, and animal crackers are on this line today," said Elizabeth Campo, NTFB's Volunteer Engagement Manager, as volunteers filled bags with the food items. "They don't require electricity, or cooking or refrigeration. It's something the kid can take out of their backpack, open and consume without additional support from a parent." 

Teachers, each Friday, slip the bags into the backpacks of students who have been identified as those who need additional support.

"When they go home in the evenings or on the weekends, those meals are missing, and so these are meant to fill that gap," said Campo. 

Back at Comstock, the principal, Alicia McCowan, showed CBS News Texas a new way the school is fighting hunger: its permanent food pantry located on the school campus.

"It allows us to house more food that's available for our families, like meat, vegetables," she said.

NTFB provides the food and the school manages the distribution. 

The food bank last year opened five new school pantries, including Comstock's, to make a total of 48 across seven counties. 

It has plans to open even more this year, stretching into Fannin and Kaufman counties, too.

There's only so much to give, though, and families say they're struggling. 

"I never get enough. I get what I can make do with," said Johnson. 

Still, the help they get, they appreciate.

Where to find help and how to provide it

If you're in need of help accessing food, find a food pantry in the Dallas County area here, or the Tarrant County area here.

If you're looking for ways to help, NTFB and TAFB have asked the public to contact Congress and urge them to support a delay in implementing the SNAP cost share program by two years, arguing it would provide the state more time to put administrative changes in place to get its error rate down. 

Donations of food and funds also play an important role in their mission, and volunteers provide a vital workforce helping distribute food across the area.