Team Nutrition staff, along with guest speakers from the Arizona Department of Education and Bellingham Public School in Washington, shared strategies and success stories on using standardized recipes that incorporate local food preferences and locally grown foods.
The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) resource center provides extensive resources for parents, teachers, and school officials at the local, state and federal levels to better understand CEP and its benefits, along with useful tools to help facilitate successful implementation of the provision.
A webinar for state agency and school food authority staff focused on the Final Rule: Child Nutrition Programs Community Eligibility Provision — Increasing Options for Schools.
The CEP slider tool will calculate and display free and paid claiming percentages.
This final rule amends the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) regulations by lowering the minimum identified student percentage (ISP) from 40 percent to 25 percent.
USDA published a final rule in the Federal Register on Sept. 26, 2023, to expand access to the Community Eligibility Provision by lowering the minimum identified student percentage participation threshold from 40 percent to 25 percent.
This guidance applies to state agencies and local educational agencies administering the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program. This guidance provides information on the final rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Community Eligibility Provision – Increasing Options for School.
This information is provided to assist state agencies, school food authorities, and local schools with the selection of a software program that has been USDA-approved for nutrient analyses required in the school meal programs.
The Menu Planner for School Meals has been revised to reflect the Child Nutrition Programs: Transitional Standards for Milk, Whole Grains, and Sodium Final Rule that was published in February 2022.
FNS published a final rule on program integrity to ensure that child nutrition programs are properly operated and managed to protect federal funds and taxpayer dollars.