What are the benefits of providing healthy school meals for all?

Healthy school meals for all can...

• Lead to improved nutrition, food security, and academic performance among students
• Advance equity and feelings of belonging among students and families
• Provide economic support for families

Most parents of school-aged children, regardless of political affiliation or household income, support HSMFA. See more here:

School meals in focus: Summary of findings from a national survey of parents (2025)

History of healthy school meals for all policies

From March 2020 to June 2022, USDA-issued waivers allowed all schools, regardless of eligible student population, to provide HSMFA nationwide. Despite an overwhelmingly positive response from school districts, families, and public health and education advocates, Congress allowed these waivers to expire in summer 2022.  Since then, nine states, including California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, and Vermont, have passed policies to ensure free breakfast and lunch for students statewide. Over two dozen states (including D.C.) have introduced HSMFA legislation.

Community Eligibility Provision

Schools may offer healthy school meals for all via the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which allows individual schools, groups of schools, and local educational agencies to provide HSMFA if at least 25 percent of their students are income-eligible for free meals. Through CEP, schools offer free healthy meals to 23.6 million children in more than 47,000 of the nation’s highest-poverty schools across all 50 states. CEP was piloted in selected states starting in the 2011-2012 school year and became available nationwide in the 2014-2015 school year. The eligibility threshold, known as the Identified Student Percentage (ISP), was 40 percent until 2023, when it was lowered to 25 percent. Lowering the threshold gives states and schools greater flexibility to offer free meals to all students, but only schools and districts with an ISP of 62.5 or higher receive federal reimbursement for all meals served at the highest (free) rate. This means that additional funding (e.g., state funds) is needed to make CEP financially viable for many schools and districts.

Federal action

CSPI engages in federal advocacy with coalition partners to protect CEP and expand access to free school meals. CSPI urges Congress to:

• Maintain the ISP threshold of 25 percent and increase the multiplier so that CEP will become financially viable for all eligible schools
• Pass the Universal School Meals Program Act of 2023 (S. 1568/H.R. 3204), which would establish a nationwide HSMFA program. In the interim, the following bills provide incremental increases in access:
  • School Meals Expansion Act of 2023 (H.R. 2567), which would increase federal funding for community eligibility schools
  • No Hungry Kids in School Act of 2023 (H.R. 3112), which would create a statewide community eligibility option
  • Expanding Access to School Meals Act of 2023 (H.R. 3113), which would increase eligibility for free meals to 200 percent of the poverty level, expand direct certification, make eligibility retroactive to the beginning of the school year, and increase federal funding for community eligibility schools

State action

In school year 2022-2023, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont became the first states in the country to pass free meals for all policies. The following school year (SY 2023-2024), Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Mexico followed suit. New York is the most recent state to implement healthy school meals for all, which began in school year 2025-2026. Meanwhile, several other states across the U.S. are considering similar legislation.

CSPI supports state HSFMA campaigns with both in-kind and financial contributions.

If you are interested in learning more about these state campaigns or how CSPI can support HSMFA in your state, please contact us at policy@cspinet.org or check out our subgrant opportunities.

This page was last updated on Feb. 4, 2026.