Students in Braxton County will have the opportunity to eat breakfast and lunch at school at no cost through a program called the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). The CEP was enacted because of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act and provides universal meal service to children in high-poverty areas. This is the fourth year for the option.
The CEP serves as an alternative to collecting, approving, and verifying household eligibility applications for free- and reduced-price eligible students in high-poverty Local Education Agencies (LEAs). If at least 40 percent of a school’s students are directly certified for free meal benefits, the entire school qualifies for the option.
Braxton County expects to have eight schools participating in the Community Eligibility Program. The program allows the school system to feed nearly 1750 students each day. The 2017 Feeding America: Map the Meal Gap data reports high levels of food insecurity and hunger across the country. In West Virginia, more than 14 percent of residents, and over 79,000 children, live in food insecure households.
For more information, contact Dr. Leatha G. Williams: Director of Technology and Child Nutrition.
