Miller: Direct Certification is an Important Tool to Ensure More Eligible Students Receive School Meals
WASHINGTON, D.C. – More school districts are implementing ways to directly enroll more eligible students for free and reduced priced school meals, according to a new report out today.
The report, Direct Certification in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP): State Implementation Progress, released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), examined the effectiveness of states and school districts in helping to eliminate barriers to direct enrollment in the NSLP. The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 required school districts to create systems to automatically enroll children for free school meals whose families receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called Food Stamps.
“There are millions of children who rely on school meals as a nutritional safety net and millions more who are eligible but are not receiving their due benefits. This report shows us the important progress schools are making to use direct certification systems to increase children’s access to school meals, but there is more work to be done to continue to improve these systems and provide critical nutrition support to working families and their children,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “The school meal programs ensure that families don’t have to choose between paying their bills and feeding their children. Direct certification helps ease that burden even more.”
“Last month, Congress made important investments to help more schools to directly certify their eligible students, which will be a big step forward toward reducing this hunger risk – and in a fiscally responsible way,” Miller continued. “President Obama, Secretary Vilsack and I know that one of the most important things we can do to help our most vulnerable children succeed is to ensure they have access to healthy, safe, nutritious – and affordable – meals.”
"This report highlights what we heard last month from witnesses before our subcommittee that if we are to ensure all eligible kids have access to these important meal programs, we need to improve our direct certification capabilities," said U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities.
For more information about the investments in child nutrition, click here.
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