Published July 23, 2026
The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) has become one of the nation’s most effective tools for ensuring students have access to healthy school meals. CEP allows high-need schools and school districts to offer breakfast and lunch to all students at no charge, eliminating barriers that can prevent children from receiving nutritious meals during the school day.
Since its nationwide launch in the 2014–2015 school year, participation in CEP has steadily increased, helping millions of students access the nutrition they need to learn, grow, and thrive. FRAC’s new report, released today,shows that during the 2025–2026 school year, 55,362 schools participated in CEP, an increase of 1,128 schools, or 2.1 percent, from the previous year. The program’s impact is substantial: 27.6 million children attended a CEP school last school year, representing an increase of more than 386,000 students from the prior year. However, while CEP participation continued to increase in the 2025–2026 school year, the pace of growth slowed considerably compared to recent years, suggesting that the program is reaching the limits of expansion under its current structure.
CEP delivers significant benefits to students, families, and schools. Research consistently shows that free school meals reduce childhood food insecurity, improve diet quality, and support better health and educational outcomes. Schools that participate in CEP often see improvements in attendance, classroom behavior, and academic performance. Families benefit as well: By ensuring that every child can receive breakfast and lunch at school at no charge regardless of individual household income, CEP provides meaningful financial relief to families.
Beyond its nutritional and educational benefits, CEP simplifies school meals administration.Iteliminates school meal debt for families, and the financial burden debt causes for school nutrition departments. CEP schools do not collect, process, and verify individual meal applications, significantly reducing paperwork and administrative costs. Instead, schools are reimbursed based on their identified student percentage (ISP), which reflects the share of students automatically certified for free meals through programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This streamlined approach allows schools to focus resources on serving students healthy meals.However, because CEP eligibility and reimbursement are tied to direct certification rates, drops in SNAP participation can have significant consequences for schools’ ability to maintain the program.
CEP now faces growing threats. The 2025 budget reconciliation law (H.R. 1) enacted deep cuts to SNAP, causing millions of people to lose nutrition assistance benefits. As fewer students are directly certified for free school meals through SNAP, schools’ ISPs will decrease, reducing federal CEP reimbursement, and jeopardizing eligibility for some schools. As a result, some schools may be forced to leave the program, while others may find it increasingly difficult to sustain free meals for all students.
To protect and expand access to healthy school meals, Congress must reverse SNAP cuts, strengthen investments in CEP, and pass a national Healthy School Meals for All policy so that every child, regardless of where they live or their family’s income, has access to nutritious meals during the school day.
To learn more about CEP in the 2025–2026 school year, read FRAC’s new report Community Eligibility: The Key to Hunger-Free Schools, School Year 2025–2026.