Dive Brief:

• The Community Eligibility Provision has allowed school districts with high concentrations of poverty to offer every student free meals under the National School Lunch Program, but Republicans have said they want to eliminate the program.
• The public schools in Huntington, WV, once named the unhealthiest city in America, have used the CEP to relieve the administrative burden of tracking eligibility, drive up demand for the meals, and achieve greater economies of scale to vastly improve food quality, according to an in-depth piece by Huffington Post Highline that chronicles the Huntington efforts and the history of the National School Lunch Program.
• In addition to rolling back nutrition standards, Republicans this year have said they intend to eliminate the CEP and end a practice of giving free meals to families who can pay for them — something that Cabell County school food service director Rhonda McCoy says would destroy her progress in Huntington.

Dive Insight:

When students do not have enough to eat at home and come to school hungry, there is a direct impact on their ability to achieve, academically. Recognizing this, some schools have begun serving students three meals per day, sending backpacks of food home for the weekends, and hosting food pantries so families can get more fresh and packaged food for free.

Sometimes student hunger goes unrecognized by teachers who don’t look deeper than the surface symptoms of aggressive behavior or an inability to concentrate. This is a mistake. And if federal support for food programs dwindles while Republicans control Congress and the White House, schools will certainly feel the impact in classrooms as well as cafeterias.