During National School Lunch Week, the Clark County School District (CCSD) is pleased to announce it will be expanding the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) districtwide. The move will allow CCSD to offer meals at no charge to all CCSD students through the 2024-25 school year.
“Access to nutritious meals is vital to student success in the classroom,” CCSD Superintendent Dr. Jesus F. Jara said. “Providing free meals to all students district wide is another step toward ensuring equity so that students can focus on learning and not where their next meal will come from.”
During National School Lunch Week (Oct. 11-15) CCSD expects to provide more than a million breakfast, lunch and supper meals to students at no charge.
CCSD has rolled out CEP year over year to allow more schools to provide free school meals to students. Up until this point, more than 290 CCSD schools took part in CEP. This final phase of the process includes all CCSD schools in CEP that will allow all students the ability to enjoy free school meals.
As of June 30, 2021, 75 percent of CCSD students qualified for free or reduced-price meals, an increase of 6.33 percent when compared to pre-pandemic.
Studies show participation in school lunch reduces food insecurity, obesity rates, and poor health.
The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a non-pricing meal service option for schools and school districts in low-income areas. CEP allows the nation’s highest poverty schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications. Instead, school districts that adopt CEP are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of students categorically eligible for free meals based on their participation in other specific means-tested programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
To learn more about CCSD Food Services, click here.
