California is the first state to offer all public school students access to free nutritious meals this school year, thanks to the statewide Universal Meals Program. Good Morning America reported that the program comes at a crucial time, with food costs rising, inflation and an overall increase in children facing hunger since the pandemic.
The Universal Meals Program is designed to build on the foundations of the federal National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (BSP) and ensures all students are offered breakfast and lunch at school. The Universal Meals Program will cover all 6 million public school students free meals thanks to the passage of Assembly Bill 130
There are three key pillars that make the Universal Meals Program a success:
Pillar One: California’s State Meal Mandate is expanded to include both a nutritiously adequate breakfast and lunch for, not just needy children, but all children each school day.
Pillar Two: High poverty schools will be required to participate in a federal provision
Pillar Three: The California State Legislature allocates funds to provide for additional state meal reimbursement to cover the cost of the Universal Meals Program.
Assembly Bill 130 includes an update of the State Meal Mandate. Commencing in SY 2022-23, Education Code (EC) 49501.5 requires public school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools serving students in grades transitional kindergarten through grade 12 (TK-12) to provide two meals free of charge (breakfast and lunch) during each school day to students requesting a meal, regardless of their free or reduced-price meal eligibility.
The Federal Provision Participation Requirement started on or before June 30, 2022, and requires local educational agencies (LEA’s ) with high poverty schools to adopt a federal universal meal service provision, such as the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) or Provision 2. A school is considered high poverty if their identified student percentage (ISP) is over 40 percent, meaning 40 percent of enrolled students are determined eligible for free or reduced-price school meals through direct certification, or identification as homeless, migrant, foster, or runaway.
There is also Supplemental State Meal Reimbursement. The California Department of Education will reimburse LEAs for all non reimbursed expenses accrued in providing federally reimbursable meals to students, as long as the LEA participates in the federal School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs and serve U.S. Department of Agriculture reimbursable meals. LEA’s will still be required to abide by federal regulations and guidelines as Universal Meals is meant to supplement, not replace, the federal school nutrition programs.
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