Hunger Awareness Month: Community Eligibility Provisions can help schools end child hunger

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a new opportunity for schools in areas that experience high poverty levels to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students. Previously only available in 11 states, schools in Pennsylvania will be able to opt in starting in the 2014-2015 school year.

How Community Eligibility Works

Community Eligibility removes the families’ and schools’ burden of submitting paper applications to enroll students in school meal programs in high-poverty communities. Instead, schools are reimbursed through a formula based on the number of students participating in additional federal benefit programs, such as homeless or migrant education, or who are living in households that receive SNAP/food stamps, TANF cash assistance, or because they are in foster care or Head Start.

Typically, schools that can participate have 75-80% of their students eligible for free and reduced price meals, and also a high level of households utilizing SNAP. You can find a list of Pennsylvania school districts and their eligibility rates here. [Note: This page highlights districts with at least 30% of students eligible for free and reduced price meals.]

Benefits for Children, Schools and Communities

Community eligibility has been successful in increasing the number of students eating meals each day, and in changing the way that school food service is done, according to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). School districts can create economies of scale by increasing meal program participation, bring staff costs down, eliminate bad debt from unpaid meal fees, and cut down on administrative costs associated with printing and processing paper applications.

The McKeesport Area School District is one of the local districts considering community eligibility.

Schenectady City School District, New York is one example of a school district that has successfully implemented community eligibility district-wide making both breakfast and lunch available to all children at no charge, and as a result, they experienced growth in both their breakfast and lunch programs. They also attribute the changes in their nutrition programs to substantially improving their attendance rates.

Larry Spring, superintendent of Schenectady City Schools, sees community eligibility as an opportunity to level the playing field for all students and address issues such as racial inequality and food insecurity as part of a larger city-wide equity agenda.

Take action!

Here’s what you can do now, before the June 30th deadline for school districts to notify their state agency that they want to opt into CEP for the 2014-2015 school year:

• See if your school is eligible. Check out PA’s spreadsheet listing the free or reduced school meals eligibility rate of all Allegheny County schools and districts – if it’s above 75%, the school or district should apply .
• Send a letter to eligible school districts urging them to opt into CEP. You can find a sample letter here.
• Write an op-ed or letter to the editor – create some public discussion in your community around CEP. You can find a sample op-ed here.
• Learn more about CEP. Utilize these CEP resources from FRAC. For more information contact: Madeleine Levin, Food Research and Action Center, [email protected].

Want help getting the Community Eligibility Program implemented in your Allegheny County school district or school? Contact me at (412) 431-8960, ext. 116 or [email protected].