School Nutrition Foundation and Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) are teaming up for an end-of-the-year webinar entitled, “Making Universal Meals a Reality through the Community Eligibility Option.” We invite you to join us on Wednesday, June 5, 2013 from 2 p.m.-3:15 p.m. EST (1 p.m. CT/12 p.m. MT/11 a.m. PT) to learn more about the Community Eligibility Option (CEO). Register online today!
The CEO is the newest federal option to provide all meals at no charge in high-poverty schools, without the need for school meals applications. CEO is available in the 2013-14 school year in eleven states, and will be available nationwide starting July 2014. The eleven states that will be eligible in the next school year are:
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Kentucky
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- New York
- Ohio
- Washington, D.C.
- West Virginia
CEO allows schools to serve free breakfast and free lunch to all students when 40 percent or more of students are certified for free meals without a paper application, which includes students who are directly certified (through data matching) for free meals because they live in households that participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), as well as children who are automatically eligible for free school meals because of their status in foster care or Head Start, homeless, or migrant. Schools that have implemented it have found that participation increases while paperwork decreases, and that revenues often increase as well.
Time will be devoted to questions and answers, so please come with your questions; participation in this webinar is worth one SNA CEU. An archived webinar will be available online following the live presentation.
Webinar Objectives
- Learn how the Community Eligible Option (CEO) works to provide universal free meals in schools with high percentages of low-income students, while reducing administrative requirements and increasing participation.
- Hear best practices and tips for implementing CEO: how to communicate externally and internally about the new option, how to set up systems to ensure accountability, and where to find resources.
- Gain insight on how CEO can help schools implement alternative breakfast models like grab-and-go and breakfast-in-the-classroom.
Program Details
- Date: Wednesday, June 5, 2013
- Time: 2 p.m.-3:15 p.m. CT
- Duration: Approximately 75 minutes
- Registration link