School Meal Program Shows Promise

Community Eligibility, a new federal option that allows schools in high-poverty areas to serve meals at no charge to help reduce hunger and streamline their school meal programs, is resulting in more children eating school meals, according to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Food Research and Action Center.

Community Eligibility was established in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, and has been phased in a few states at a time over the past three school years. The first three states to adopt Community Eligibility—Illinois, Kentucky, and Michigan—have reported that the program has been a success since they started offering the option in 2011-2012.

In those three states, average daily lunch participation rose by 13 percent, resulting in more than 23,000 additional children eating lunch, and average daily breakfast participation has increased by 25 percent in schools that participated for two years, resulting in more than 29,000 additional children eating breakfast. Overall, school meal participation is far higher in schools that offer Community Eligibility.

Eleven states now can operate Community Eligibility: the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio and West Virginia.