Nearly 13.6 million students are now receiving free breakfast and lunch through a federal program that has previously been targeted for reduction by Republicans, according to a new report. The Community Eligibility Provision, part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, allows high-poverty schools to provide free meals without requiring that students’ households submit applications. In the 2018-2019 school year, participation in the program grew 14 percent from the 2017-2018 school year.
“Under community eligibility, participation in school breakfast and lunch increases, allowing more students to reap the many benefits of school meals, including improved academic achievement, better health, improved attendance, and fewer disciplinary referrals,” said James Weill, president of the Food Research & Action Center, which put out the new report on the program, in a press release. “Plus, the stigma that school meals are only for low-income children also is eliminated.”
Researchers note that one benefit of community eligibility is that participating school districts do not have to grapple with the high-profile issue of “school lunch debt,” in which students whose families cannot afford school meals accrue debt and can even be served substandard fare.
“The issue of student lunch debt is one that many school districts across the country are dealing with, and most people would agree that children should not go hungry because they cannot pay for school meals,” Crystal FitzSimons, director of school and out-of-school time programs at the Food Research & Action Center, said in the release. “Community eligibility is an important solution for unpaid school meal debt for high-poverty schools and districts.”
The report, “Community Eligibility: The Key to Hunger-Free Schools,” found that nationwide, more than 64 percent of eligible school districts have chose to enroll in community eligibility. Enrollment has grown steadily since the program’s 2014 national rollout. Schools and school districts can opt in to the program if 40 percent or more of their student body is eligible for free school meals without an application — for instance, if students’ households receive SNAP or TANF benefits. The meals are paid for by federal reimbursement.
In 2016, Republican legislators introduced a bill that would have required schools participating in community eligibility to have 60 percent of their student body qualify for free school meals without an application. Opponents said that change would disqualify 40 percent of the school districts participating in the program at the time. The bill died at the end of 2016 along with other efforts to reauthorize child nutrition programs.
Congress is expected to reauthorize those programs this year, which it hasn’t done since 2010. The process could include modifications to existing school meal policies. A hearing on reauthorization took place in March.