More students will be eligible to school breakfast and lunch at no cost under a rule change announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
At schools where 25% of families participate in income-based public benefits, such as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, the federal government now will cover the cost of free meals for all enrolled students. Previously, the qualifying threshold was 40%. Roughly 3,000 additional school districts will now be eligible, officials said.
During the pandemic, Congress temporarily made universal meals free to all students, but that ended last year. Other federal programs that provided direct food assistance to families also scaled down amid soaring food prices.
The new rule will expand access to universal meals through a program known as the Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP. Instead of requiring families to fill out individual applications for free or reduced-price meals, schools participating in the program receive federal funding based on income data, with local or state money filling in any gaps in the cost of offering meals to all students.
Eight states have made school meals free to all students regardless of income — California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont.
Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack said the rule change is a step toward fulfilling the promise of healthy school meals for all. Some have criticized the costs of the program. The Republican Study Committee has called for eliminating the CEP altogether, arguing it ignores the individual income eligibility of each student.