The number of U.S. districts and individual schools offering free breakfast and lunch for all students increased significantly in the 2023-24 school year, a new report found.

When comparing the 2022-23 school year to 2023-24, 7,500 more schools and 1,300 more school districts adopted the federal Community Eligibility Provision program, which allows high-need schools to offer breakfast and lunch at no charge to all students, the Community Eligibility: The Key to Hunger-Free Schools report by the D.C.-based nonprofit Food Research & Action Center found.

That's a 19% and 20% increase, respectively, from the 2022-23 school year.

"One out of every two National School Lunch Program schools use CEP to offer free school meals to all their students," Erin Hysom, who serves as FRAC's senior child nutrition policy analyst, said Friday. "And that is really just a monumental statistic. ... When you have 50% of National School Lunch Program schools using CEP, that sends a strong message of the value and importance of the program to the entire school community."

Several factors contributed to that growth.

According to Hysom, waivers issued during the pandemic that allowed districts to provide school meals for free revealed "the power and the potential of healthy school meals for all." Since the waivers ended in 2022-23, more districts have turned to CEP.

Another piece, she said, is Medicaid direct certification, which allows schools to use a data matching process that automatically enrolls students for free school meals if the child's household income falls below the eligibility threshold.

But the driving factor, she said, is the increase in school policies supporting healthy school meals for all. Eight states — California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont — implemented Healthy School Meals for All policies that allow all schools to serve all students school meals for free. Others — New York, Oregon and Washington — subsidize the difference between the federal free and federal pay rate so that all meals are reimbursed at the federal free rate.

Because of those factors, 7,700 total school districts, or 74% of those eligible, adopted CEP in one or more schools during the 2023-24 school year. Schools also saw an increase, with more than 47,760 having adopted CEP in 2023-24, or almost 85% of those eligible.

In Pennsylvania, 72% of eligible school districts and 81% of eligible schools adopted CEP.

Nationwide, 41 states and Washington, D.C., increased the number of school districts adopting the program last school year. New York experienced the largest growth, with 326, an almost 64% increase, participating in the program last year compared to 2022-23. And 14 states — Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming — had 95% or more of their eligible schools adopt the Community Eligibility Provision program.

"It is something that schools want to adopt and that they continue to adapt year after year," Hysom said. "We know that hungry children can't learn and we know that there's far too many hungry children in America."

And according to the report, additional schools offering CEP helps eliminate the perception that school meals are only for "children from low-income households," while also increasing participation in school meals and reducing administrative costs.

But more work needs to be done to ensure additional districts can participate.

"While we are grateful for the recent lowering of the threshold for CEP participation, without additional funding, many schools and districts across the country still struggle to adopt this transformative program," Crystal FitzSimons, FRAC interim president, said in a statement. "Increasing the federal reimbursement multiplier is essential to ensure that every eligible school can provide free, nutritious meals to all students."

While all meals are offered at no charge to all students in CEP schools, the report reads, federal reimbursements are based on the school's proportion of children from low-income homes.

The United States Department of Agriculture in October 2023 amended the requirement stating schools or districts had to have at least 40% of students enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to qualify for the Community Eligibility Provision program to 25%.

But at the time the USDA also codified a multiplier of 1.6. That number is multiplied by the percent of students enrolled in SNAP to calculate the percentage of meals reimbursed at the federal free rate. The rest are reimbursed at the lower, federal paid rate.

For example, a school with 50% of students enrolled in SNAP would be reimbursed for 80% of the meals served at the free reimbursement rate. The other 20% would be at the paid rate.

But that "inadequate multiplier," the report reads, has caused many newly eligible schools to be unable to participate without additional funding.

Instead, the report calls on Congress to increase the multiplier from 1.6 to 2.5. That change, Hysom said, "would strengthen viability among all eligibility levels."

The report also supports efforts that are underway in the House and Senate to strengthen and expand CEP. The School Hunger Elimination Act would increase federal funding for CEP schools by increasing the multiplier to 2.5 while also strengthening CEP through policy changes. The School Meals Expansion Act would increase federal funding for CEP schools.

"When a student is in the classroom focused on the hunger in his tummy as opposed to the academics in the classroom, they are going to be at a lower level of success," Hysom said. "We need to flip that narrative and have schools be a place that children know they can go to for whole nourishment."

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