The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a win for students, families, and schools.
CEP gives 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, and paid meals. When students have access to free meals at school, families have lower grocery bills and more money in their household budgets to help make ends meet.
Despite its undeniable benefits, some lawmakers want to weaken community eligibility during the 2025 budget reconciliation. Their proposal would force more than 24,000 schools nationwide, serving more than 12 million children, to drop CEP. Now is the time to urge Congress to protect CEP, not weaken it.
CEP supports students, families, and schools. Find your state’s CEP fact sheet below.
Technical Note:
The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities utilized 2023-2024 CEP participation data for this analysis. FRAC obtained 2023–2024 CEP participation data from state agencies that administer the federal school nutrition programs. The data included whether schools have elected to adopt CEP, the Identified Student Percentage (ISP) the schools used to determine the federal reimbursement for meals served, sometimes called the group or claiming ISP, and the total number of students attending each CEP school. For more information on this data collection, please refer to FRAC’s 2024 report, Community Eligibility: The Key to Hunger-Free Schools School Year 2023-2024.