Page 70 - Superintendent Report 2023-24

Providing Food For Thought

Community Eligibility Provision

Due to the discontinuation of federal waivers, free meals
were no longer going to be allowed moving into the 2022-
2023 school year. Understanding that this change could have
a negative impact on our students and families, School Food
Service (SFS) researched the feasibility of implementing the
Community Eligibility Provision.

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a non-pricing
meal service option for schools and school districts. CEP
allows districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all
enrolled students without collecting household applications.
Instead, schools that adopt CEP are reimbursed using
a formula based on the percentage of students categorically eligible for free meals based on their participation in
other programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF).
After determining eligibility, working with other departments to ensure a smooth transition, modifying procedures and
required reporting, and receiving District leadership and State approval, SFS moved forward with this program. As a result
of continuing to provide meals for free and by marketing this to our students and parents, School Food Service reached
more students with nutritious meals. In total, breakfast participation increased by 3.49% and lunch participation increased
by 4.32%.

As a result of the District electing the CEP provision, both Miami-Dade County and Broward County also decided to start
CEP this year; impacting more students throughout the tri-county area.

Enhanced Local Procurement
School Food Service continues to expand upon local procurement to enhance the school lunch program and reduce the
District’s carbon footprint. In addition to using local produce, SFS was able to utilize a Department of Defense (DoD)
contract to further process local whole fruit into individual cut, packaged servings.
FY23 highlights:

• Re-introduced fresh green beans from RC Hatton Farms
• Expanded cut fruit offerings from April 2 to May 12
• Watermelon - 6,911 cases or 331,728 servings
• Cantaloupe - 4,368 cases or 15,248 servings
• Blueberries - 2,502 cases or 125,100 servings
• Piloted an all beef, Fresh From Florida patty from Miami Beef with a soft launch scheduled in FY24

70 // Superintendent Annual Report 2022 - 2023