The positive experience of states and school districts that have implemented community eligibility demonstrates that while they can no longer use
school meal application data to allocate funds, states and localities should not be dissuaded from adopting community eligibility.
Identified students include those who qualify for free meals because they live in households that participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), as well as children who are certified for free school meals without submitting
a school meal application because of their status as being in foster care, enrolled in Head Start, homeless, runaway, or migrant students.
She shared some creative ideas on how anti-hunger groups can help school nutrition programs through initiatives like
school meal application campaigns and grant writing, and she punctuated her points with success stories from DC Hunger Solutions and DC public schools, Ohio's Children's Hunger Alliance, and Project Bread, among others.
This brief describes one of the key simplifications of community eligibility: participating schools no longer collect
school meal applications.
Other LAs with a different set up for free
school meals applications (it often sits within another department) will need to work together to find common ground for the benefits of our pupils and schools.
[6] Community eligibility schools, however, may not collect
school meal applications or use funds from the school nutrition account to collect individual income data.
For allocating state or local funds to districts or schools, alternative data can be used in lieu of the income data collected on
school meal applications.
Community eligibility allows high - poverty schools to offer school meals at no charge to all students while streamlining school meal program operations, including eliminating
school meal applications, which many states and localities have used as the basis for distributing resources to schools and students.
[1] One of the key simplifications of community eligibility is that participating schools no longer collect
school meal applications.
It explains and provides resources related to how community eligibility works, how it helps participating schools and families, how to operate without
school meal applications, and how stakeholders can prepare to implement the option when it becomes available in all states for the 2014 - 2015 school year.
This simplification eliminates the numerous hours that school administrators spend processing and verifying
school meal applications.
Community eligibility has significant potential to expand access to school meals for students from low - income families while reducing administrative burdens by eliminating
school meal applications.
Other LAs with a different set up for free
school meals applications (it often sits within another department) will need to work together to find common ground for the benefits of our pupils and schools.
LCFF Alternate Forms In the absence of
school meal applications, California's schools will need to gather individual income information from the students to receive full funding from the LCFF.
During questions in the Lords following the memo leak, Lord Nash, the minister for the schools system, said that «66 grammar schools do now prioritise free
school meal applications».
Not exact matches
In addition, an updated Let's Move Salad Bars to
School site was recently launched to provide a portal for school districts to submit applications to receive a salad bar and for information on how to include a salad bar in their school meal pr
School site was recently launched to provide a portal for
school districts to submit applications to receive a salad bar and for information on how to include a salad bar in their school meal pr
school districts to submit
applications to receive a salad bar and for information on how to include a salad bar in their
school meal pr
school meal program.
Identify best practices when designing
applications for free and reduced price
school meals, and know how / where to access related USDA guidance and resources;
In her
application essay for consideration for an SNF scholarship, Paull wrote, «I am so proud of the work we do in our
schools teaching nutrition and providing healthy
meals.
CEO allows
schools to serve free breakfast and free lunch to all students when 40 percent or more of students are certified for free
meals without a paper
application, which includes students who are directly certified (through data matching) for free
meals because they live in households that participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), as well as children who are automatically eligible for free
school meals because of their status in foster care or Head Start, homeless, or migrant.
When the family fills out the free
meal application and lists $ 0 as their income, the student can get 8 weeks of temporary free status; after 8 weeks, the family needs to fill out another
application (and so on, every 8 weeks for the whole
school year.)
The Community Eligibility Program (CEP) is a
meal service option for
schools and
school districts in low - income areas — allowing the nation's highest poverty
schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without the burden of collecting household
applications.
Because
school districts using CEP no longer collect
meal applications at all
schools, states have developed alternative data sources for assessing the poverty level of
schools.
Invite families to support your
school by completing and returning their
meal applications.
Make it a priority for your
school district that every single family must return a free
meal application, even if the family already knows that they won't qualify for government subsidized
meals; those families can write «not interested» on the form, but their child MUST return the form to their teacher.
In addition, an updated Let's Move Salad Bars to
School site was recently launched to provide a portal for school districts to submit applications to receive a salad bar and for information on how to include a salad bar in their school meal pr
School site was recently launched to provide a portal for
school districts to submit applications to receive a salad bar and for information on how to include a salad bar in their school meal pr
school districts to submit
applications to receive a salad bar and for information on how to include a salad bar in their
school meal pr
school meal program.
The CEP was one of the less publicized gains of the Healthy, Hunger - Free Kids Act (HHFKA), allowing
schools to provide universal
meals to an entire
school based on «direct certification» data, such as how many children live in households receiving food stamps (SNAP benefits), without also requiring annual paper
applications submitted by parents.
I'm back from summer vacation in time to share some nice news: Houston ISD, the seventh largest district in the country, has announced that it's taking advantage of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) to provide universal (free)
school breakfast and lunch to every student at 166 of its
schools, regardless of economic status, and without the need for
meal applications or other paperwork.
Huge data sets were shared with IDEO staff for their project, but even members of the SF Board of Education have no access to files showing how many students at each
school have not yet returned a
meal application, or how many ate
school lunch in October, or how much cafeteria debt each
school is accumulating.
Frozen IQF, dried and unsweetened canned tart cherries have wide
applications in
school meals — including breakfasts, lunches, snacks, suppers and summer food service programs.
Be knowledgeable about the
application process for free
school meals.
A
school, group of
schools, or an entire local educational agency (LEA or
school district) may operate under CEP if the LEA chooses to do so and if at least 40 percent of the total enrollment is approved for free
school meals without an
application.
CEP is designed to ensure access to
school meals by students from low - income families and simplify administration of the
school meal programs by eliminating the use of
applications to collect family income information and the need to track children by eligibility category in the lunchroom.
When
school districts implement community eligibility, however, they no longer have the individual income data from those
meal applications for the students attending community eligibility
schools — data that programs outside of the
school meal programs often use.
A
school, group of
schools, or an entire local educational agency (LEA or
school district) may offer community eligibility if the number of children enrolled for free
school meals without a paper
application, referred to as «Identified Students,» is at least 40 percent of the total enrollment.
Disadvantage: The estimated ratio of students approved for free
meals without an
application to FRPL students may not be applicable to individual
schools or LEAs, especially if the LEA has been counting only free
meal recipients (see below).
Because students approved for free
meals without an
application are a subset of students who would qualify for free or reduced - price
school meals if their families completed an
application, this approach is likely to lower the percentage of students considered low - income at all
schools.
Without
applications,
schools need an alternative method to determine
meal reimbursements.
The 1.6 multiplier is an estimate of the ratio of the total number of students approved for free and reduced - price
school lunches to the number of students approved for free
meals without an
application.
It is critical that states and
school districts identify alternatives to data from
meal applications so that high - poverty
schools that adopt community eligibility to feed more students are not disadvantaged in any other context.
Identified Students are always a subset of the students who would qualify for free or reduced - price
school meals if their families completed an
application.
Likewise, it is critical that a desire for data traditionally gathered from
meal applications does not stand in the way of districts and
schools implementing community eligibility, which can help support educational achievement, reduce hunger, and improve children's nutrition and health.
In preparation for the upcoming
school year, we encourage you to complete the
Application for Free and Reduced Price
Meals at www.mymealtime.com by Friday, September 1, 2018.
California's existing direct certification process uses other entitlement program data, such as CalFresh, to identify low - income students and certify them for free
school meals — no separate paper
application for
meals is required.
The community eligibility provision allows
schools with high numbers of low - income children serve breakfast and lunch at no charge without collecting
school -
meal - benefit
applications.
Some complained that
applications were getting dinged for not having adequate busing and
meal plans, though the charter
school board denied this.
Through CEP, eligible
schools can provide
meal service to all students at no charge, regardless of economic status and without the need to collect eligibility data through household
applications.
As an alternative to collecting individual
applications for F / RP
meals, CEP allows
schools and local educational agencies (LEA) with a high percentage of low - income children to offer free
meals to all students.
The idea is to allow
schools with high percentages of low - income children to offer free
meals for all, instead of collecting individual
applications for free and reduced price
meals.
Invite families to support your
school by completing and returning their
meal applications.
Meal benefits from the previous
school year apply for the first 30
school days of the new
school year or until a new
application is submitted.