By Food, Research and Action Center, Excerpt
The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a federal program that allows low-income schools to feed breakfast and lunch to all students free of charge. The program is designed to reduce the number of hungry students in class and reduce the burden of paperwork for many schools. Students that participate in school meal programs have better outcomes than their peers who do not.
According to the newly released report, in 2016, Oklahoma added more than 40 school districts to the program equaling 177 total new schools. While this is promising progress for Oklahoma, only 31.9% of eligible schools and 26.9% of eligible school districts are currently participating. Oklahoma has the 8th lowest CEP participation in the nation.
Hunger Free Oklahoma and our partners across the state are here to help interested schools determine if CEP is the right fit for their schools. Please contact us for more information on the program or for more information on the importance of school meals see our white paper, Addressing Hunger in Schools.