FNS Documents & Resources

The purpose of this memorandum is to update prior guidance to reflect changes made to the Community Eligibility Provision due to the Final Rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Community Eligibility Provision – Increasing Options for Schools (FR 65778), effective on Oct. 26, 2023. This final rule amended CEP regulations by lowering the minimum identified student percentage to elect CEP from 40 percent to 25 percent. 
 

This memorandum provides a reminder of the annual Community Eligibility Provision notification and publication requirements, including the changes made by the Final Rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Community Eligibility Provision – Increasing Options for Schools. This memorandum also reminds state agencies that the statutory election deadline for schools to elect CEP for school year 2024-25 is June 30, 2024.

This memorandum provides new guidance and questions and answers to address changes made by the CEP final rule. Additionally, this memorandum provides clarification on guidance related to CEP. The attached Q&As supersede SP 54-2016, Community Eligibility Provision: Guidance and Updated Q&As.

Attached is the third edition of Community Eligibility Provision: Planning and Implementation Guidance. The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) meal service option that allows schools and local educational agencies (LEAs) in high poverty areas to offer meals at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications. 

This final rule amends the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) regulations by lowering the minimum identified student percentage (ISP) from 40 percent to 25 percent. 

This memorandum provides information on the revised Prototype Application for Free and Reduced Price School Meals. USDA updated the prototype application to improve the user experience for applicants by adjusting the reading level, streamlining the application instructions, and by adding clarity to the mailing instructions to reduce the number of applications sent to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.

The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will discontinue the requirement for vendors to use high security seals to secure USDA Foods deliveries as of July 1, 2023. 

This rulemaking proposes to expand access to the Community Eligibility Provision by lowering the minimum identified student percentage participation threshold from 40 percent to 25 percent, which would give states and schools greater flexibility to choose to invest non-federal funds to offer no-cost meals to all enrolled students.

This document is addressed to TEFAP state agencies and provides answers to common questions about TEFAP Farm to Food Bank projects, as authorized by The Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983.

Welcome to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service’s Household Certification Training course for the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations. FDPIR is a federal program that provides USDA foods to low-income households living on Indian reservations, in designated areas near reservations, and in the State of Oklahoma. FNS developed the FDPIR Household Certification Training course to help Indian Tribal Organization (ITO) and state agency certification workers and their supervisors successfully administer the program.