Community Eligibility Provision Eligibility Requirements and Benefits

What is Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)?

• Community Eligibility Provision is a meal service option of the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program that allows high need schools to serve meals at no cost to all students while alleviating the administrative burden to collect paper applications. Even though Massachusetts has made school meals free for all students regardless of eligibility, this special provision of the NSLP plays a significant role in sustaining state funded free school meals. Massachusetts requires any qualifying school to operate under CEP because CEP schools receive a greater portion of the funding from the federal government, reducing the state share of funding. Schools that operate under CEP have reduced administrative burden related to collecting and processing meal benefit applications and tracking students based on their meal eligibility status.

Additional Resources can be found in USDA's CEP Resource Center .

What is Required to Participate in CEP?

To be eligible, LEAs and/or schools must:

• meet a minimum level of "identified students" for free meals in the year prior to implementing CEP;
• serve free breakfast and lunches to all students; *
• agree to cover with non-Federal funds costs in excess of Federal reimbursements.*

* Massachusetts requires all NSLP participating schools to also offer school breakfast and fully subsidizes any gap in federal reimbursements, making the transition to CEP easy for schools.

What is an "Identified Student"?

Students can be considered "identified" if they are certified for free meals without a meal benefit application. Students are certified for free school meals through participation in:

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or is a household member of a participant
• Homeless students certified by the district
• Migrant Education Program (MEP) youth certified by local officials
• Runaway youth certified by local officials
• Head Start students participating in a district school meal program
• Foster children, certified by the school district or the Department of Children and Families

When Can My District or School Apply to Participate in CEP?

LEAs are approved for operation at the beginning of each school year. Schools must participate in the application process that takes place the previous spring:

• March:
  • Learn more about CEP by taking our introductory course: CEP: Introduction to Community Eligibility Provision
• April 1^st – 15^th:
  • LEAs must submit school level eligibility information to FNP
  • Office for Food and Nutrition Programs (FNP) notify LEAs of eligibility status and provide guidance and information to LEAs applying for CEP
• May 1^st:
  • Office for Food and Nutrition Programs post LEA district-wide and school levels lists
• June 30^th:
  • Eligible LEAs must submit identified student and total enrollment data (reflective of enrollment on April 1) to FNP for validation in order to participate in CEP the following year

For more information on how to participate in CEP contact nutrition@mass.gov or 781-338-6480.

Last Updated: March 11, 2026