1. Community Eligibility Making Schools Hunger Free
Jessica Pino-Goodspeed, LMSW
Child Nutrition Programs Specialist
Who is HSNY?
HSNY is a state-wide, anti-hunger organization.
We raise awareness of hunger in your community and promote programs that address hunger.
We advocate for full participation in nutrition assistance programs for all who are eligible.
We also work to promote policies that contribute to ending hunger.
Child Nutrition Program Specialist
Increase awareness of, support for, and participation in the federal child nutrition programs;
Serve as child nutrition program resource for individuals, organizations, and agencies

2. The Need for Nutrition Assistance
In New York State…
1 in 6 New Yorkers (17.6 percent) struggled to afford enough food in 2014.
Food Research and Action Center (2015)
1 in 5 children (21.8 percent) live in households that lack access to enough nutritionally adequate food to live an active, healthy lifestyle.
Feeding America, Map the Meal Gap (2012)
Over 1.6 million students (55 percent) qualify for free and reduced-price school meals.
NYS Education Department (2013)

3. The Link Between Nutrition and Education
Together the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs meet the nutritional needs of children by providing more than half of the nutrients children need each day.
Research indicates:
Children who eat school lunch have superior nutritional intakes compared to those who bring lunch from home or otherwise do not participate.
Low-income children who eat school breakfast have better overall diet quality than those who eat breakfast elsewhere or skip breakfast.
When a child’s nutritional needs are met, the child is:
More attentive in class
Has better attendance
Fewer disciplinary problems

4. What is the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)?
Established in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of as a new option.
Schools that adopt CEP can provide free breakfasts and lunches to all students without collecting applications.
Streamlines school meals for high-poverty schools.
Became available in NYS for the school year.
Community eligibility is designed to be extremely easy for a school or district.
…To feed more students and focus on meal quality rather than on paperwork.
It doesn’t make sense for high-poverty schools to go through the standard application process to identify the few children who do not qualify for free or reduced-price school meals
Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 included community eligibility as a new option to allow high-poverty schools to feed more students and focus on meal quality rather than on paperwork
Streamlines school meals for districts with high rates of students qualified for free and reduced-price by providing an alternative to collecting household eligibility applications.

5. Benefits of Community Eligibility
Less administrative work → schools no longer have to collect and verify school meal applications and can focus on feeding children.
Increases participation → when all children can eat at no charge, stigma is eliminated and more children participate.
Facilitates implementation of breakfast after the bell → schools don’t have to collect fees or count each meal served by fee category, simplifying implementation of service models that boost participation.
Improves the financial viability of school nutrition programs → when participation increases, school districts can take advantage of economies of scale, and reinvest additional revenue to improve meal quality.
Eliminates unpaid meal fees → when all children eat at no charge, the school district does not have to collect unpaid fees from families.

6. Community Eligibility Implementation in NYS
Take up of Community Eligibility in the School Year
138 of 602 eligible school districts adopted CEP (23%)
1,246 of 2,252 eligible schools adopted CEP (55%)
867 of 1,301 eligible highest-poverty schools adopted CEP (67%)
505,859 students attend CEP schools
Highest Poverty Schools = Schools where the Identified Student Percentage (ISP), or the share of students who qualify automatically for free school meals, is at least 60%
CBPP analysis of data on eligible schools and districts published by state child nutrition agencies in May 2014 and data on schools and districts adopting CEP collected directly from state child nutrition agencies from September 2014 through January All schools and districts that adopted CEP are counted as eligible even if they were not included on the published state list. School districts may have had more recent or complete data on which eligibility was based or additional schools may participate as part of an eligible group.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, February

7. How Community Eligibility Works
High-poverty schools provide free breakfasts and lunches to all students without collecting applications
Any school district can use this option if at least one of its schools has 40 percent or more students certified for free meals without application (called “Identified Students”)
The school must have a minimum level (40%) ‘Identified Students’ as of April 1 in the year prior to implementing CEP.
Typically schools with a 40 percent Identified Student Percentage have 75% or more of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals.
For example, ABC school must have 40% of their enrolled students certified for free school meals without an application on April 1, 2015 in order to implement CEP in the school year.

8. Who Are “Identified Students”?
Children certified for free meals without submitting a school meal application
Includes children who are certified for free meals because they live in households that participate in:
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Medicaid (only those identified on direct certification list – indicate under 130% FPL)
Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) benefits
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Cash Assistance (TANF)
Includes children who are certified for free meals without application because they:
receive an eligibility letter or free school meals
are in foster care (certified by OCFS)
are in Head Start (certified by the Head Start coordinator listing)
are homeless (certified by McKinney-Vento or homelessness liaison)
are migrant (certified by the migrant coordinator liaison)
Please note: ONLY SNAP and Medicaid students are directly certified through data matching in NYS

9. How Community Eligibility Works
CEP is a 4-year reimbursement option for eligible high poverty districts and schools.
Schools can choose to opt out of CEP at any time.
To participate for the school year, school districts must notify the state agency by August 31, 2015
The district may implement community eligibility in one school, a group of schools or district-wide.
CEP is a 4-year reimbursement option for eligible high poverty districts and schools.
The district may implement community eligibility in one school, a group of schools or district-wide.

10. How Schools Can Participate
By individual school
Individual schools with 40% or more Identified Students participate in community eligibility
By group
Districts may choose to group schools any way they wish and calculate the free claiming percentage for the group of schools as a whole, using their combined enrollment and total number of Identified Students, as long as the percentage is 40% or higher
There is no limit to the number of groups
Within the same school district, some schools can participate individually and some can participate as a group
By school district
All schools in the district participate as a single group with the same free claiming percentage as long as it is 40% or higher

11. How Community Eligibility Financially
Under CEP, schools still operate the National School Lunch and Breakfast.
CEP Reimbursement
Receive federal and state reimbursement for every meal served.
Meal reimbursements are calculated by multiplying the percentage of Identified Students by 1.6.
Count all meals served.
Traditional Reimbursement
Receive federal and state reimbursement for every meal served.
Meal reimbursed based on meal category (free, reduced, paid).
Keep track of meals by fee category.
CEP Formula for Reimbursement → % Identified Students x 1.6 = % meals reimbursed at “free” rate; the rest are reimbursed at “paid” rate
Example: A school with 50 percent Identified Students would be reimbursed at the free rate for 80 percent of the breakfasts and lunches it served (50% x 1.6 = 80%) and the remaining 20 percent would be reimbursed at the paid rate.

12. Reimbursements Under Community Eligibility
CEP Formula for Reimbursement → % Identified Students x 1.6 = % meals reimbursed at “free” rate; the rest are reimbursed at “paid” rate
No more than 100% of meals can be reimbursed at the free rate.
Participating schools are guaranteed to receive the same reimbursement rate (or a higher one if the Identified Student Percentage increases) for 4 years
Percentage Identified Students
Percentage Free
Paid
40%
64%
36%
45%
72%
28%
50%
80%
20%
55%
88%
12%
60%
96% 4%
62.5% and above
100%

13. Feedback from Community Eligibility Schools
Even though schools can drop out at any time, no New York State schools have opted out of Community Eligibility Provision to return to traditional reimbursement method.
All school districts that implemented the option the first year and were surveyed by FRAC would recommend community eligibility to high poverty schools like their own.
School districts report positive feedback from parents and school staff.
Increased ability to feed more students.
Some districts report an increase in revenue.

14. CEP: Making High Poverty Schools Hunger Free
The Community Eligibility Provision fights hunger by offering breakfast and lunch for free to all students, leading to more children having access to school meals.
These programs are particularly important in schools that serve large numbers of children whose families are struggling to put food on the table.

15. Ways to Support Community Eligibility in Your Service Area
What Can You Do?
Ways to Support Community Eligibility in Your Service Area
Partner with schools to conduct SNAP outreach to ensure that eligible children receive SNAP benefits.
Your SNAP outreach can help achieve a higher identified student percentage (ISP). Schools and districts with higher ISPs receive more in federal reimbursements and will have an easier time covering their costs using CEP.
Refer to HSNY to help schools by improve your direct certification process.
Ensure all eligible students are captured is crucial to schools deciding to adopt CEP. There are resources to help schools: Hunger Solutions New York's Direct Certification Tip Sheet for Community Eligibility.
Let schools know your work as a NOEP Coordinator supports CEP.
You work to ensure eligible children receive SNAP benefits and are counted as identified students (resulting in higher federal reimbursements).
Raise awareness of how community eligibility helps low-income students and schools.
The deadline to apply for the school year is August 31, 2015.

16. Community Eligibility Resources:
Hunger Solutions New York
(Subscribe via or RSS feed)
CEP Blog “What Schools Need To Know About Community Eligibility”
Child Nutrition Newsletter “School Breakfast and Community Eligibility”
Other Key Materials
USDA Materials
Community Eligibility: An Amazing New Option for Schools
Database of Eligible Schools and Policy Resources
Community Eligibility: A Powerful Tool in the Fight Against Child Hunger

17. Contact Information:
Jessica L. Pino-Goodspeed, LMSW
x 103
HungerSolutionsNY.org
Facebook.com/HungerSolutionsNY
Twitter.com/NewYorkHunger
©Hunger Solutions New York. All Rights Reserved.
Prepared by Hunger Solutions New York with support from the NYS OTDA, FRAC, Walmart Foundation, Share Our Strength, and MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger. This institution is an equal opportunity provider.