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H.R. 2680: Expanding Access to School Meals Act of 2025

This bill, known as the Expanding Access to School Meals Act of 2025, seeks to amend existing legislation regarding school meal programs, specifically targeting the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 and the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act. Here are the main components of the bill:

Repeal of Reduced Price Breakfasts and Lunches

The bill proposes to eliminate the program for reduced price breakfasts and lunches in schools. This means:

Schools will no longer be allowed to offer breakfast and lunch at reduced prices for eligible students.
The Secretary of Agriculture would no longer provide reimbursements for these reduced price meals.

Expansion of Free Lunch Eligibility

The bill seeks to expand eligibility for free school meals based on family income. Key points include:

The bill raises the income threshold for qualifying for free breakfast and lunch from 130% to 224% of the federal poverty level. This means that more families with higher incomes would qualify for free meals.
It allows for direct certification of children receiving Medicaid benefits, making it easier for those families to access free meals without going through additional application processes.

Retroactive Reimbursement for Meal Claims

School districts will be able to revise previously submitted meal claims to reflect children’s eligibility for free meals retroactively, starting from the beginning of the current school year. This means:

If a child's eligibility for free meals is approved after the school year has started, schools can update their reimbursement requests to include meals provided to that child from the start of the school year.

Increase of Community Eligibility Program Multiplier

The bill proposes an increase in the multiplier used in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for free school meals. Under this provision:

The multiplier will increase to 2.5 for each school year beginning on or after July 1, 2025, allowing more schools to provide free meals based on a larger number of eligible students.