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Advocates urge state support for schools to expand free‑meal participation through CEP and startup grants
Summary
Solving Hunger and United Way witnesses urged the Senate Education Committee to help schools enroll in the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) and to provide startup grants so more high‑need schools can offer free meals to all students.
Advocates for school meals told the Senate Education Committee that state support to expand Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) participation and to cover startup costs would allow more high‑need schools to offer free meals to all students and draw additional federal reimbursement dollars.
Lisa Quigley of Solving Hunger described how universal school meals improve attendance, test scores and family finances, and urged the committee to adopt language from the governor’s budget that encourages CEP participation and to fund a startup cost pool. She cited Arkansas and Tennessee as examples of states that expanded breakfast and other school‑meal programs.
Quigley provided a cost estimate: a state fund of roughly $33 million could serve an additional 92,000 low‑income students and bring an estimated $47 million in new federal reimbursements, returning about $1.50 for every dollar invested, according to testimony.
United Way leaders described evidence‑based early‑childhood and third‑grade reading investments in a separate testimony and said state support for wraparound family stability services and school‑linked programs should continue. Senators did not act on meal‑funding proposals during the hearing; advocates asked the committee to include startup grants in the final budget to increase CEP participation in small and rural schools.
