An expansion of a federal school meal program will reach all 50 states later this year, but the likely impact to federal and state budgets remains to be seen.
Thousands of additional students are expected to benefit from a free lunch as part of what is known as the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which was signed into law in 2010, according to Pew Charitable Trusts.
The program allows districts that qualify for free- or reduced-price lunches to offer free, healthy meals to all students, including those whose families are not considered low income.
The program does not require individual applications and instead relies on information from other programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Temporary Assistance Program for Needy Families, to determine the level of federal funding. States will be left to fund the rest.
For example, if a school has 40 percent or more students whose parents receive food stamps, that school can opt to participate. Pew found that there are more than 28,000 such schools in the country, but schools that barely qualify might find that participation isn’t feasible since eligible schools are required to cover any funding shortfalls.
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote in a letter to state school officers that CEP reduces administrative costs and paperwork, provides more children with nutritious meals at school and represents a meal service model that is easier to implement.
It’s not yet clear exactly what the final cost will be, but the Congressional Budget Office in 2010 projected that more than 2,200 schools would sign up for the school meal program by the end of the decade. If that happens, the financial impact could be more than $100 million.
