Maximizing CEP: Strategies, Benefits, and What to Know for the Year Ahead

This practical webinar addressed CEP basics, highlighted benefits for school nutrition programs, students, families, and educators, and shared key considerations for the year ahead. Unfortunatley, the webinar recording is unavailable, but we have many CEP resources that can support you where ever you are in your CEP journey.

CEP Basics

• CEP Overview - Visit our Center for Best Practices CEP webpage for access to information and resources, from how CEP works (eligibility, reimbursement, etc.), to gaining buy-in from stakholders, to implementation support.
• Webinar: CEP 101 - Learn the nuts and bolts of CEP, key upcoming dates, and tools to help you make decisions about whether CEP adoption is right for your community.
• CEP Video Series - For an in-depth understanding of CEP, this short video series offers information on:
  • Whether CEP is right for you,
  • CEP Financials,
  • CEP and Your Central Business Officer (CBO),
  • Maximizing ISP, and
  • Measuring CEP Success.
• U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) CEP Resource Center - Provides extensive resources for parents, teachers, and school officials at the local, state, and federal levels to better understand CEP and its benefits, along with useful tools to help facilitate successful implementation of the provision.

CEP Calculator

No Kid Hungry CEP Calculator - The No Kid Hungry CEP Calculator compares both school and district-level expected annual revenue under both CEP and standard counting and claiming. It optimizes your revenue with CEP by using strategic grouping, and customizes your financial analysis by manipulating expected breakfast and lunch participation rates by school. This resource page also includes a demo on how to use the calculator.

Outreach & Buy-In

• Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Communications Toolkit - This toolkit provides school nutrition departments with strategies and tips to effectively communicate about CEP and the availability of free school meals for all students. The toolkit also has downloadable and customizable social media graphics, banners, posters and more for you to use to spread the word about free school meals for all to students in your district.
• CEP Outreach - Visit our outreach page for guidance and resources on how to help raise the visibility of CEP amongst stakeholders, including students, district administrators, teachers and school staff. 

Maximizing CEP

• Increasing CEP Success - visit the Center for Best Practices website to access several resources on how to make the most of CEP, including:
  • Identified Student Percentage (ISP) Management: Increasing & Maximizing Your District's ISP
  • Calculating Identified Student Percentage Using Early Childhood Program and Alternative Agreement School Data
  • Strategies For Finding Success With CEP
• Webinar: You've Gone CEP, Now What? Tips & tricks to maximize CEP - Learn strategies and best practices to maximize the benefits of CEP, including tracking key performance indicators, operational changes to maximize benefits, and tips for looking ahead.
• Student Feedback Toolkit for School Meals - Access tools for collecting feedback about school meal programs from students through both surveys and listening sessions, which can help provide as much insight as possible to understand and improve participation.

State-Specfic Information

• No Kid Hungry State Legislation Dashboard - This tool depicts the landscape of state legislation in key policy areas for addressing child hunger, including no-cost school meals through CEP and Healthy School Meals for All. This dashboard can be helpful for identifying approaches taken by other states to increase access to school meals.

  USDA's Community Eligibility Provision Status of School Districts and Schools by State  - Learn about about CEP, including state agency application processes.

Important Dates

• April 1: Counts of identified and enrolled students as of April 1 are used for CEP eligibility determinations.
• April 15: State agencies must provide district-wide CEP eligibility to local education agencies (LEAs). LEAs must provide school-level eligibility data to state agencies.
• May 1: State agencies must post CEP eligibility lists online, and must send the link to CEP eligibility lists to USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).
• June 30: LEAs must notify state agencies of intent to participate in CEP.