Media Contacts:
Food Research & Action Center
Jordan Baker
jbaker@frac.org
202-640-1118
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Jacob Kaufman-Waldron
jkaufmanwaldron@cbpp.org
WASHINGTON, October 31, 2025 — More than 27 million children nationwide can access school meals at no charge through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), according to the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), who today released state-by-state fact sheets showing the reach of CEP in every congressional district. The organizations warn that the recent devastating cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the budget reconciliation law (H.R.1) could greatly undermine gains in school meal participation, which would increase food insecurity, school meal debt, and stigma, and bring back the burden of school meal applications.
CEP provides all students access to the nutritious school breakfasts and lunches they need to be well-nourished and ready to learn, while reducing the stigma often present in school cafeterias when schools have to track students’ eligibility for free, reduced-price, or paid meals.
“We should be celebrating the many wins of CEP for children, families, and schools,” said Crystal FitzSimons, president of FRAC. “But instead, we are deeply concerned that the devastating SNAP cuts now threaten the health, education, and overall well-being of our nation’s children.”
The cuts will exacerbate food insecurity and have ripple effects for the school meals programs, including threatening schools’ ability to implement CEP. As children lose access to SNAP, they lose their direct certification for free school meals and federal reimbursement for meals served in CEP schools decreases, jeopardizing the program’s financial viability. If CEP is no longer financially viable for schools, they will need to return to a system of collecting school meal applications and charging students different prices for the same meals.
“CEP is a proven tool to make sure children in high-poverty schools have access to nutritious meals, helping to reduce hunger,” said Ty Jones Cox, vice president for Food Assistance Policy at CBPP. “Unfortunately, the Republican megabill moves in the opposite direction and will take food assistance away from millions of people already struggling to afford the high cost of food.”
FRAC and CBPP urge Congress to mitigate the harmful SNAP cuts and protect and expand the reach of CEP to ensure every child in every corner of the country can access the nutrition they need to learn and thrive.
To understand the role that CEP plays in each state and see which school districts in each congressional district use CEP to offer meals to all students at no cost to families, view the fact sheets.
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About Food Research & Action Center
The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) improves the nutrition, health, and well-being of people struggling against poverty-related hunger in the United States through advocacy, partnerships, and by advancing bold and equitable policy solutions. To learn more, visit FRAC.org and follow us on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky.
About the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is a nonpartisan research and policy institute that advances federal and state policies to help build a nation where everyone — regardless of income, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, ZIP code, immigration status, or disability status — has the resources they need to thrive and share in the nation’s prosperity.