Lawmakers in Washington reauthorized funding for the Child Nutrition Act earlier this month, a bill that funds and sets the guidelines for a number of child nutrition programs, including how much federal money goes towards school lunches.

The legislation, which comes up for renewal every five years, is a $4.5 billion package that included additional funding this year, something health advocates have long been lobbying for.

But the extra money comes at a price, as the Senate dipped into $2.2 billion in stimulus funds intended to expand SNAP, the federal food stamps program. The cuts have put anti-hunger advocates in an awkward position, where support for one nutrition program means a major setback for another.“When they reauthorize, rarely do they include new funding, which is why this bill is being cited as historic,” said Kristen Mancinelli, from hunger advocacy group City Harvest and the NYC Alliance for Child Nutrition Reauthorization.

“We’ve been asking for a new investment in child nutrition for a year and a half, and now what [they’re] trying to do is shift money from another program that is benefitting the same children, and calling it a new investment, when that’s not what it is,” she said.

In New York City, the public school system serves up a total of 860,000 cafeteria meals a day, and has about 90 cents to spend on each of them. The extra money in this year’s Child Nutrition Act means the city will be reimbursed an additional six cents per school lunch, which could help the city serve healthier, better quality food in the cafeteria, advocates say.

“Access to healthy foods is a big problem in the Bronx, and that puts extra pressure on the schools to have the resources to provide a healthy meal,” said Heidi Hynes, director at the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center in Crotona. “The schools can do a better job if they have more money.”

Bronx Congressmen Jose E. Serrano, Eliot Engel and Joseph Crowley all voted in favor of the legislation, which was signed into law by President Obama on Dec. 13.

Anti-hunger advocates are hoping the SNAP cuts will be restored with funding from elsewhere.

“There are almost 2 million people in New York City that are receiving SNAP,” Mancinelli said. “In the Bronx, Serrano’s district has the highest food stamp participation in the country. So that’s a tremendous blow to real people.”