Food and Nutrition Programs

Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Application Groupings Webinar for School Districts Eligible for CEP

To:	National School Lunch Program Directors
From:	Robert M. Leshin, Acting Director Office for Food and Nutrition Programs
Date:	May 2, 2016

Join the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's, Office for Food and Nutrition Programs, as we provide a follow up Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Application groupings webinar for districts interested in applying to participate in CEP in SY2016-2017. School Nutrition Directors that plan to participate in CEP and would like additional assistance to create one or more groups of CEP schools to maximize federal reimbursement for the district should attend. The webinar will provide step by step instructions on making the best decision for the district and submitting the April report for ESE approval. The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA), amended section 11(a) (1) of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42.U.S.C.1759a (a) (1)) requires the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide an alternative to household eligibility applications for free and reduced price meal eligibility in high poverty local educational agencies (LEAs). This initiative is referred to as the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) and is available to all LEAs that have eligible sites. CEP can help schools achieve their educational goals by ensuring that children in low-income communities have access to healthy meals at school so they are ready to learn. In this program, schools agree to offer breakfast and lunch at no charge to all students. Designed to ease the burden of administering a high volume of applications for free and reduced price meals, CEP is a powerful tool to both increase universal access to child nutrition programs and reduce paperwork at the district, school, and household levels. CEP Application Groupings Webinar is scheduled on the following date.

Date/ Time	Location
Monday, May 9, 2016: 10:00 am – 11:30 am	Online

Important Registration Information

The webinar will be held online. Log on instructions for the webinar will be sent to registrants the week before the webinar. Space is limited please register as soon as possible. Please contact the Office for Food and Nutrition Programs at 781-338-6480 or by email at nutrition@doe.mass.edu if you have any questions related to the training. We look forward to seeing you at this important training session, as the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office for Food and Nutrition Programs strive to enhance the efficiency and quality of Child Nutrition Programs across the Commonwealth.

Last Updated: May 2, 2016