Supporting Community Eligibility Through State Policy

Session Summary: The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is instrumental in the fight against childhood hunger. By offering all students school meals at no cost, CEP increases children’s access to nutritious foods, while stretching household food budgets. CEP participation has grown tremendously over the last decade, with one out of every two schools using CEP to offer healthy school meals to all students last school year. However, many CEP-eligible schools cannot participate due to inadequate federal funding. States across the country are working to fill this gap by providing support and subsidies that allow more schools to adopt CEP and bring the benefits of school meals to their students. Join this session to discover how New York, Oregon, and Washington are supporting schools’ ability to implement CEP, and the effect that state legislation has had on school meals participation.