No Hungry Kids in Schools Act
This bill directs the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish an option for states to utilize a statewide Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for USDA school meal programs. As background, the CEP allows eligible schools, groups of schools, and school districts the option to offer free breakfast and lunch to all enrolled students without collecting household applications.
Specifically, USDA must establish a statewide CEP option that may be used by a state agency. The state agency must provide state (nonfederal) funding to local educational agencies to reimburse applicable schools at the free reimbursement rate for 100% of the meals served.
Eligibility for the statewide CEP must be based on a statewide calculation of the percentage of identified enrolled students, regardless of a school's local educational agency. Further, the bill lowers the CEP participation threshold for a statewide CEP to an identified student percentage (ISP) of zero, from a minimum of 25% under current regulations. The ISP is the percentage of students who are eligible for free school meals without a household application, primarily those who are directly certified through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
In addition, the bill specifies that the reimbursement multiplier for school meals remains at the current level of 1.6. The reimbursement multiplier is used to calculate how many meals will be reimbursed at the free meal rate.
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2402 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2402
To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to establish
statewide community eligibility for certain special assistance
payments, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 27, 2025
Mr. Aguilar (for himself, Mr. Carson, Ms. Chu, Mr. DeSaulnier, Mr.
McGarvey, Ms. Jacobs, Mr. Gottheimer, Mr. Mullin, Ms. Norton, Mr.
Panetta, Ms. Pingree, Ms. Tlaib, and Mrs. Watson Coleman) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education
and Workforce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to establish
statewide community eligibility for certain special assistance
payments, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``No Hungry Kids in Schools Act''.
SEC. 2. STATEWIDE COMMUNITY ELIGIBILITY.
Section 11(a)(1)(F) of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch
Act (42 U.S.C. 1759a(a)(1)(F)) is amended by adding at the end the
following:
``(xiv) Statewide community eligibility.--
For each school year beginning on or after July
1, 2025, the Secretary shall establish an
option for States to utilize a statewide
community eligibility program, for purposes of
which, in the case of a State agency that
agrees to provide funding from sources other
than Federal funds to ensure that local
educational agencies in the State receive the
free reimbursement rate for 100 percent of the
meals served at applicable schools, as defined
by the Secretary--
``(I) the multiplier described in
clause (vii) shall apply;
``(II) the threshold described in
clause (viii) shall be zero; and
``(III) the percentage of enrolled
students who were identified students
shall be calculated across all
applicable schools in the State
regardless of local educational
agency.''.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
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