This morning, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its final rule on updating the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) to expand student access to free meals and improve the financial viability of school meal programs. Effective October 26, 2023, CEP regulations will be amended to lower the minimum identified student percentage (ISP) to opt into the program from 40% to 25%, and the ISP multiplier will be codified at 1.6 (instead of a range of 1.3 to 1.6) to support the financial viability of school meals.
In USDA's announcement about the final rule, the agency notes how Community Eligibility benefits children, families, schools, and communities. CEP is an option for eligible schools to offer meals at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications. CEP eliminates the need for schools to collect household income applications by sharing eligibility data between specific federal assistance programs, which can reduce administrative burden for both schools and families. Schools participating in CEP often see an increase in meal participation under the school breakfast and school lunch programs. Access to school meals at no cost improves students' diet quality and academic performance and can reduce social stigma and food insecurity. It also reduces administrative burden and eliminates unpaid meal debt in schools, and improves program integrity by simplifying administration and lowering error rates in certifying students.
This has been a longstanding nutrition policy priority for ASBO International, and is a huge advocacy win for members! We are grateful to USDA for listening to our feedback on this proposal and codifying these changes in the final rule. We will continue to advocate for increasing the multiplier further to 2.5, but recognize this is an issue that requires Congressional authorization.
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ASBO USA
asbousa@asbointl.org
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