Did you know there’s a way for children in Medicaid households to be automatically eligible for free and reduced price school meals without their families completing another application? It’s called the Direct Certification with Medicaid Demonstration Project and USDA recently opened applications for more states to participate.

Currently, 38 states participate in the demonstration project, which represents 91% of the nation’s K-12 students. In school year 2019-20, these demonstration projects allowed states to directly certify more than 1.4 million students for free and reduced price meals based on Medicaid data.

New states will have the opportunity to start this project in school years 2024-25, 2025-26, or 2026-27. USDA will consider applications received through Nov. 30, 2025.

Automatic eligibility is a win-win for students, families, and school officials because it provides benefits such as:

• Lower food costs for families,
• Lower school meal debt,
• Higher student participation in school breakfast and lunch programs, and
• Less time and administrative burden for hardworking school nutrition staff.

Arizona, for example, began participating in the Direct Certification with Medicaid Demonstration Project this school year (2023-24) and is experiencing positive results from it. According to Tom Horne, the state’s superintendent of public instruction with the Department of Education, the pilot has already benefited thousands of additional Arizona students who now can receive breakfasts and lunches free of charge each school day, and their families no longer need to fill out an application.

Direct Certification with Medicaid will also give more kids access to USDA’s new Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program, also known as Summer EBT, which will launch in summer 2024. Households with students who are automatically eligible for free school meals will also be automatically eligible to receive $40 per summer month (per child) in grocery benefits if they live in states, territories, and Tribal Nations that participate in Summer EBT.

Children are also automatically eligible for free and reduced-price school meals – and Summer EBT benefits – if they live in households that participate in other income-based federal assistance programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP.

More information about the Direct Certification for Medicaid Demonstration Project is available on the FNS website.

There’s something growing on at Rialto Unified School District (RUSD). By growing school gardens, serving more local foods in school meals, offering all students breakfast and lunch at no cost, serving healthy summer meals, and more, RUSD is supporting a healthier future for their community. And it is all due to the school district’s commitment to serving kids healthy and tasty school meals.

RUSD students are learning how food is grown by helping to tend school gardens and citrus groves. By leveraging California’s farm to school funding, RUSD has been laying the groundwork to incorporate the produce grown by students into the meals the district’s schools serve.

At Rialto Middle School, students learn about environmental resiliency and help expand the amount of local foods purchased for school meals. Not only are students making a difference by increasing the amount of fresh, nutritious, and tasty meals served in their school, they are also bringing their learning home to teach their families about healthy eating.

At another RUSD campus, Werner Elementary School, a community garden is serving as a living laboratory where students can observe, experiment with, and grow edible plants. The staff that manage Werner Elementary School’s garden strive to promote good nutrition by planting, tending, harvesting, and eating organic fruits, vegetables, and herbs. The school aims to empower the community with gardens and a STEM-based curriculum that engages all students in experiential outdoor education.

RUSD leadership and its Board of Education recognize that nourishing food is essential to student health and development. They acknowledge that child nutrition programs have a positive and direct impact on children's well-being and success in the classroom and are committed to getting the entire school community and other stakeholders involved, including local farmers and elected leaders.

Given the RUSD community’s commitment to serving and teaching children about healthy food, the district naturally became a model for drive-thru food pick-up during the Covid-19 pandemic. The RUSD Nutrition Services’ mini documentary titled, “Rialto Unified School District: Feeding Kids During COVID,” provides a snapshot of the challenges the district faced and how their community worked together to feed students and families quality food in a comfortable, uplifting environment.

RUSD continues to support their students’ access to healthy school meals by:

1. Participating in Community Eligibility Provision to offer all students breakfast and lunch at no cost;
2. Serving breakfast in the classroom at elementary, middle, and high schools;
3. Utilizing the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program to introduce new produce and deliver nutrition education;
4. Conducting healthy food tastes tests; and
5. Using USDA Foods and scratch-cooking to create healthy school meals; and

As a result of their commitment to serving high-quality nutritious summer meals, RUSD was awarded USDA’s Turnip the Beet Gold Award in 2021 and 2022. The award recognizes outstanding summer meal program sponsors, including school districts across the nation who offer meals that are appetizing, appealing, and nutritious to children during the summer months.

The success of RUSD's child nutrition programs is the result of an entire school community embracing efforts to serve and teach students about nutritious foods. By harnessing support from diverse community partners, as well as leveraging local, state, and federal resources, the district has put the children they serve on a path toward a healthy future. As RUSD Lead Child Nutrition Agent Fausat Rahman-Davies said in the mini documentary, “It really takes a village to feed and to raise a child.”

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13, 2023 – This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) joined students, parents/caregivers, schools, communities, and partners across the country in recognizing National School Lunch Week, as proclaimed by President Biden. October is also Farm to School Month, which recognizes the benefits of incorporating healthy, locally grown foods into school meals.

“School meals are the main source of nutrition for nearly 30 million children each school day,” said Deputy Under Secretary of Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Stacy Dean. “USDA applauds the school nutrition professionals, teachers, farmers and producers, and other community heroes who make it their mission to nourish students in the classroom and lunchroom. The Biden-Harris Administration will continue to invest in our nation’s future by supporting programs and efforts that improve the health and well-being of our children.”

USDA is pleased to highlight some of the many success stories across the country of schools creatively leveraging resources – both their own and USDA’s – to help children reach their full potential through nutritious school meals.

Improving the Quality of School Meals

Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program

USDA continues to support fresh and local meals in all child nutrition programs through the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program, including awarding $10.7 million to support 103 grantees’ farm to school projects earlier this year. Applications for the next round of Farm to School Grants are open now through Jan. 12, 2024. To receive updates on the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program and applications for the grants, subscribe to The Dirt, the program’s monthly e-newsletter.

Success Story: Children in Hillsborough County, Florida can access homegrown, nutritious school meals thanks to strong partnerships with local farmers. Because the school district uses the Community Eligibility Provision, commonly known as CEP, these meals are served without the need for families to fill out applications. Read their story.

Equipment Assistance Grants for the National School Lunch Program

This year, USDA awarded $30 million to help school districts nationwide purchase equipment to prepare and serve nutritious meals that meet the department’s nutrition requirements. These investments also make it easier for schools to incorporate fresh foods into their cooking, such as those provided through Farm to School programs.

Success Story: Carroll County Schools in Kentucky received an Equipment Assistance Grant from the Kentucky Department of Education that allowed them to replace their kitchen ovens – in service for over 25 years – with new and improved ovens that cook more efficiently. This allowed them to include more local foods into their delicious school meals. Learn more.

Expanding Access to School Meals

Community Eligibility Provision

Last month, USDA announced a final rule that gives an estimated 3,000 more school districts in high-need areas the option to serve healthy school meals to all students at no cost. This option is possible through the Community Eligibility Provision, when state and local funds are available to meet the additional costs that are not covered by federal funds. In school year 2022-23, 19.9 million students benefitted from CEP in more than 6,400 school districts nationwide.

School nutrition leaders from across the country tout the positive results of offering their students school breakfast and lunch at no cost:

“CEP has transformed the landscape of school meal programs in West Virginia for the better. With CEP, more students are participating in school meal programs, and when meals are free and readily available, there are no financial barriers to accessing nutritious food. This increased participation in school breakfast and lunch has had positive implications for students' health, well-being, and academic participation. Additionally, the momentum from CEP has motivated our communities to ensure our kids are fed outside of school by supporting school-based food pantries and backpack programs.” – Amanda Harrison, director, Office of Child Nutrition, West Virginia Department of Education

“The New Mexico Public Education Department’s work with CEP has assisted in the implementation of universal free meals in New Mexico. Over the past few years, our poverty numbers increased, which has led to the increase in schools participating in CEP. CEP has been instrumental in allowing over 80% of New Mexico’s highest poverty schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications.” – Michael Chavez, director, Student Success and Wellness Bureau, New Mexico Public Education Department

FNS Administrator Cindy Long notes “While there is still more work ahead to ensure every K-12 student in the nation can access healthy school meals at no cost, each state that takes any action to expand access to school meals moves us closer towards that goal.”

Healthy School Meals for All

Eight states have taken permanent actions to make sure hunger is not a barrier to children’s success. California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont passed state laws allowing their schools to serve healthy school breakfasts and lunches to all their students at no cost.

Direct Certification for Medicaid Demonstration Projects

USDA continues to expand its Direct Certification for Medicaid Demonstration Projects, which ensure that eligible children in households receiving Medicaid benefits automatically receive free or reduced price school meals without their families completing an application. The demonstration projects have been implemented in 38 states, and USDA will invite more states to participate. In school year 2019-20, 1.4 million students received free and reduced-price school meals thanks to direct certification through Medicaid.

Related Resources

• Webpage: USDA School Meals
• Webpage: Child Nutrition Success Stories
• Webpage: USDA Support for Schools

USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service works to end hunger and improve food and nutrition security through a suite of 16 nutrition assistance programs, such as the school breakfast and lunch programs, WIC and SNAP. Together, these programs serve 1 in 4 Americans over the course of a year, promoting consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, and affordable food essential to optimal health and well-being. FNS also provides science-based nutrition recommendations through the co-development of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. FNS’s report, “Leveraging the White House Conference to Promote and Elevate Nutrition Security: The Role of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service,” highlights ways the agency will support the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Strategy, released in conjunction with the historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in September 2022. To learn more about FNS, visit www.fns.usda.gov and follow us:

• Twitter/X: Join our community @USDANutrition, where we provide updates to our 110,000+ followers on everything happening across our programs.
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