LOS ANGELES — The food day begins early for the poorest students in the Los Angeles Unified School District — with breakfast available before the start of class. Then there's breakfast-for-all brought to the classroom, followed later by a snack, lunch, more snacks for after-school programs and sometimes a dinner sent home for the child.

It's all free of charge.

"I see some so hungry that want two breakfasts," said Stephanie Levinson, a third-grade teacher at San Fernando Elementary School. "It's a huge help with breakfast — especially with the food costs." She estimated that about three-quarters of students rely on the free school lunch.

More than 80% of L.A. Unified students qualify for a free or reduced-price school meal — mainly funded by $363 million per year in federal food aid that the district receives.

But this food aid appears to have become be another chess piece in the joust between California and the Trump administration's efforts to pressure state and local officials to follow its edicts.

In an imprecise warning letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Trump-appointed head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture conditioned its aid to California on abiding by Trump directives — and cited a federal investigation into a state law that prohibits schools from automatically notifying families about student gender-identity changes and shields teachers from retaliation for supporting transgender student rights.

A state education official said the threat "flies in the face of our moral obligation to care for our country's children."

Federal officials contend that the California law violates a federal law that guarantees parents' access to their child's school records. State officials responded that the California law does not violate federal statutes because it does not affect the right of parents to request and receive records.

The Agriculture Department funds research and the venerable 4-H youth development program, but its core school-related contribution is paying for food to feed children from low-income families while they are at school. The annual total of USDA school-related food aid for California is more than $3 billion a year.

The USDA "at the direction of President Donald J. Trump ... is undertaking a review of its research and other education-related funding in California for compliance with the Constitution, federal laws ... and the priorities of the Trump administration," Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote in her March 27 letter.

The USDA did not respond to multiple queries from The Times requesting elaboration on the funding threat in its letter to Newsom.

In an unrelated action, the department has eliminated an auxiliary food program — begun after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak — worth $1 billion a year nationwide. That program funded the purchase of high-quality, fresh goods from local producers.

The USDA said the programs are a legacy of the pandemic and no longer supported the agency's priorities.

State officials alluded to this pending cut in response to the Rollins warning letter.

"Secretary Rollins is riding shotgun on a Department of Education investigation to nowhere — all to distract from her disgraceful $1 billion in recent cuts to school meals, food banks, and farmers," said Izzy Gardon, director of communications for Newsom. "The USDA's actions are lowering the quality of food in our schools and taking meals away from hungry families across the Golden State and our country."

In a Thursday news conference, Newsom did not specifically address issues raised in Rollins' letter, calling it more of a "press release" than an inquiry "for common ground." He also alluded to "hundreds and hundreds" of real and potential threats to the state from the federal government: "We take everything seriously."

In its response, the California Department of Education made a reference to Elon Musk, who is heading a Trump-authorized budget-and-job-slashing group, the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency.

"Secretary Rollins and the Trump-Musk administration have already left schools and family farms scrambling after cutting the Local Food for Schools grant programs," said Liz Sanders, the state Department of Education's director of communications. "Now, they are bringing partisan politics directly to the cafeteria table, threatening our children's food security as a mechanism to force states to comply with a national ideological agenda. This is flat-out wrong."

How California feeds students

The fate of school district food aid is complicated by a California law that, starting with the 2022-23 school year, guaranteed a free breakfast and lunch for all students — regardless of a family's income. Newsom signed the legislation with the understanding that the federal government would be paying most of the cost.

Current estimates are that the state will pay about $1.8 billion this year and the feds, about $2.7 billion for breakfast and lunch — with other federal funds paying for additional food aid.

The outlook is troubling for local school district leaders such as L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho. The pending elimination of the farm-to-table program is bad enough and one concern among many, he said.

"We've made huge strides over the past few years alone in terms of guaranteeing healthier food options, farm to table, more fruits and vegetables available to our kids," Carvalho said. "A deviation from that, through a cessation of that type of funding, would undermine the quality of food we currently provide. It would also have a deleterious impact on local farmers that depend on the business they have with the school district."

Critics say the Trump administration is intentionally sowing confusion as part of its pressure campaign to influence actions taken by school districts, colleges and states. They also accuse Trump of using children — or food for poor children in this case — as pawns for political leverage.

Trump officials and supporters flip that analysis, saying that families and students have been harmed by a radical left-wing agenda — one that also prematurely sexualizes children and indoctrinates them to change their gender.

The USDA will support, Rollins wrote in her letter, "efforts to vigorously protect parents' rights and ensure that students do not fall victim to a radical transgender ideology that often leads to family alienation and irreversible medical interventions."

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Times staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report.

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