As young people head back to school this fall, some families will need to complete a school meals application to ensure their child receives breakfast and lunch at no cost.

Apply here for the 2024-2025 school year.

Many school divisions in Virginia participate in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which allows eligible schools to provide breakfast and lunch at no cost to students, without families needing to submit a school meals application. But unfortunately, not all schools are eligible to adopt CEP. Virginia has 40 school divisions that have no CEP opportunities, or CEP opportunities at a limited number of schools. In these divisions, families whose kids attend non-CEP eligible schools will need to submit a school meals application.

Our partners at No Kid Hungry Virginia wrote a very informative blog and developed a helpful resource for families to use and quickly find their child’s school meals application link. Families only need to fill out the school meals application to determine the cost of their child’s school meals if they see their local school division on the list linked above.

You should fill out your school division’s form even if you’re not sure whether you qualify for free meals. It may qualify your family for additional benefits, like discounted exam fees and college applications, extracurriculars, scholarship opportunities, and even home wifi. Filling out the form can also help your child’s school receive additional classroom resources that will support all students’ education.

Apply here for the 2024-2025 school year.