LIST: Local Tenn. school districts providing free breakfast, lunch this year

• Local schools are offering free breakfast and lunch to students this year under CEP .
• CEP is funded by the USDA and managed by the TDOE.
• The state determines which schools are eligible, and the cycle restarts every 4 years.

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Dozens of schools in the Tri-Cities region will provide free breakfast and lunch to enrolled students this year as part of a national program called Community Eligibility Provision (CEP).

Students at participating schools will be given one full breakfast and one full lunch meal at no cost each school day under the U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded initiative.

The student must accept the entire meal, all sides and drink, in order to receive the meal for free. They can still purchase second meals and a la carte items with cash or meal funds.

What is the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) and who decides who’s eligible?

The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) manages the CEP program for schools in the state. According to the TDOE, that eligibility is reassessed and adjusted every four years. The TDOE is solely in charge of determining each school’s eligibility.

The TDOE’s website states “to be eligible to participate, a district, school, or groups of schools from the same district must have a directly certified identified student percentage of at least 25% by April 1, prior to the first year of implementation.”

A summary of how the CEP works, as described by the USDA, can be found below:

CEP allows the nation’s highest poverty schools and 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 specific means-tested programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

USDA

Which local Tennessee schools are CEP?

All Tennessee school districts in the Tri-Cities area are participating in the CEP program in some capacity, with several being districtwide CEP; this means all schools in that system are providing free breakfast and lunch for the 2024-25 school year.

A list of school districts in Northeast Tennessee that are considered CEP schools can be found below:

• Johnson City : “All eight of our elementary schools qualify,” a JCS spokesperson told News Channel 11. “Last year, only six of our eight elementary schools qualified. However, our middle schools (Indian Trail and Liberty Bell) and Science Hill High School do not qualify.”
• Washington County : Boones Creek, Fall Branch, Grandview, Gray, Jonesborough, Lamar, South Central and Westview.
• Kingsport City Schools : All schools
• Bristol, Tenn. City Schools : All schools
• Sullivan County Schools : All schools
• Elizabethton City Schools : Eastside, Harold McCormick, Wandell Early Learning
• Carter County Schools : All schools & Siam Learning Center
• Rogersville City School : Eligible & providing free meals
• Hawkins County Schools : All schools
• Unicoi County Schools : All schools
• Johnson County Schools : All schools

News Channel 11 has reached out to Greeneville City Schools and Greene County Schools regarding their CEP status and will update this story once that information is confirmed.

What area school district leaders are saying about CEP

Washington County Schools Superintendent Jerry Boyd told News Channel 11 on Tuesday that the district will ensure every student gets a meal, regardless of their school’s CEP status, the student’s reduced/free meal eligibility or ability to pay.

“I want to point out …. there’s certainly some concern and questions, you know, about students having access to meals, even for families that may not qualify for free or reduced — the program that everyone’s familiar with,” he said. “Our cafeterias provide lunch to every student every day, breakfast to every student every day, regardless of their ability to pay.”

Boyd stressed that no child will be turned away from the cafeteria line if they aren’t able to pay for a meal at a non-CEP school in Washington County, Tennessee.

“No students are going to be turned away to a meal. You know, some families do have the resources to pay for their own lunch and breakfast and they will continue to do that. But, you know, say there’s a case where momentarily or in a certain instance, they can’t. There, every child will still be offered a breakfast, lunch, regardless of the ability to pay.”

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