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No Hungry Kids in Schools Act
4/23/2025, 1:32 PM
Summary of Bill HR 2402
The main goal of this legislation is to ensure that all eligible schools across the country have access to the necessary resources to provide nutritious meals to their students. By establishing statewide community eligibility, schools will be able to more easily qualify for assistance payments, ultimately benefiting the students who rely on these meals for their daily nutrition.
In addition to establishing statewide community eligibility, this bill also includes provisions for other purposes related to the National School Lunch Program. These provisions are aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the program, ensuring that all eligible schools are able to participate and provide meals to their students. Overall, Bill 119 hr 2402 is focused on improving access to nutritious meals for students in need by streamlining the process for schools to qualify for special assistance payments under the National School Lunch Program. This legislation has the potential to positively impact the lives of countless students across the country by ensuring they have access to the meals they need to thrive.
Congressional Summary of HR 2402
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.
