Four of every five eligible schools in high-poverty areas have adopted the community eligibility provision, which allows them to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students, said the Food Research and Action Center on Wednesday. The anti-hunger group said 40,235 schools operated under the provision during the 2022-23 school year, an increase of 6,935 schools from the previous year.
The community eligibility provision was created in the 2010 child nutrition law and became accessible nationwide for the 2014-15 school year. It is available to any school, group of schools, or school district with at least 40 percent of its students “identified” as eligible for free meals by means other than a family application, such as SNAP enrollment.
“We are thrilled to see the dramatic increase in the number of schools adopting community eligibility,” said Luis Guardia, FRAC president.
California, Florida, and Washington State had the largest increases in the number of schools adopting the provision. Some 19.9 million children nationwide attended schools that used the provision, said FRAC.
The FRAC report is available here.