If a child is sneaking food, is it stealing?

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How is it stealing if they're taking it from their own home?

If they are hungry let them eat, just keep healthful food in the house so they don't become unhealthy.

Stupid formulation, sorry.

No, its not stealing, it already belonds to the family.
HOWEVER, they may act against "house law/rules".

I know my mother didn't want us to fetch snacks from the fridge(or any of the cupboards, for that matter) when dinner was to be served in a little while.

Many children are not exactly good with "organizing" their diet, and why would they, it's their parents job.
So it would mostly depend on the family situation.

I say keep a fruit basket or something similar around, and make it clear to children that if they want a snack, they can always take something from here, but otherwise, they should ask or wait for lunch/dinner.
If they still take stuff, without asking, then it's still not stealing, but will lead to a serious talk with them.

It's only stealing if the snack belonged to someone else.

When I was growing up, there wasn't much money (or food) and we were often hungry. My mum had to budget and plan every meal a week in advance. Most of the food in the cupboard was for meals (vegetables, meat, etc) and then some was not to be included in meals (bread, crackers, biscuits). We soon learned to avoid anything that looked like it was going to be part of a main meal because, if you ate it, the whole family went without a meal. That would have been classed as stealing. But having the last slice of bread wouldn't.

I do get that morality is slightly different when you're living hand-to-mouth.

It's not stealing. It's just being a child.

it cant be stealing if it belongs to the family. though when they are specifically told not to eat something in particular and they do, its not stealing but they can be punished for it