IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/apecpp/v47y2025i1p199-216.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Universal free school meals: Examining factors influencing adoption of the Community Eligibility Provision

Author

Listed:
  • Pratyoosh Kashyap
  • Becca B. R. Jablonski

Abstract

Recognizing school meals as critical safety nets for children in low‐income households, many states are passing legislation to adopt universal free school meals, linking their funding to the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), a federally funded universal free school meal program. However, about half of all eligible school districts did not participate in CEP in the school year 2018–2019. Using a policy diffusion approach and a Cox regression model, this research demonstrates the importance of a school district's identified student percentage (poverty level) and a state's direct certification rate (certifying students for free meals) in increasing the likelihood of CEP adoption.

Suggested Citation

  • Pratyoosh Kashyap & Becca B. R. Jablonski, 2025. "Universal free school meals: Examining factors influencing adoption of the Community Eligibility Provision," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(1), pages 199-216, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:apecpp:v:47:y:2025:i:1:p:199-216
    DOI: 10.1002/aepp.13460
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13460
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/aepp.13460?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arteaga, Irma & Heflin, Colleen, 2014. "Participation in the National School Lunch Program and food security: An analysis of transitions into kindergarten," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P3), pages 224-230.
    2. Marcus, Michelle & Yewell, Katherine G., 2022. "The Effect of Free School Meals on Household Food Purchases: Evidence from the Community Eligibility Provision," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. Krista Ruffini, 2022. "Universal Access to Free School Meals and Student Achievement: Evidence from the Community Eligibility Provision," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(3), pages 776-820.
    4. Nora Gordon & Krista Ruffini, 2021. "Schoolwide Free Meals and Student Discipline: Effects of the Community Eligibility Provision," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 16(3), pages 418-442, Summer.
    5. Vitaly Radsky & Thurston Domina & Leah R. Clark & Renuka Bhaskar, 2022. "There is Such Thing as a Free Lunch: School Meals, Stigma, and Student Discipline," Working Papers 22-23, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    6. Lyson, Helena C., 2016. "National policy and state dynamics: A state-level analysis of the factors influencing the prevalence of farm to school programs in the United States," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 23-35.
    7. Mosier, Samantha L. & Thilmany, Dawn, 2016. "Diffusion of food policy in the U.S.: The case of organic certification," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 80-91.
    8. Rogus, Stephanie & Guthrie, Joanne & Ralston, Katherine, 2018. "Characteristics of School Districts Offering Free School Meals to All Students Through the Community Eligibility Provision of the National School Lunch Program," Economic Research Report 276219, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    9. Louis-Philippe Beland & Sara Oloomi, 2017. "Party Affiliation And Public Spending: Evidence From U.S. Governors," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(2), pages 982-995, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:ags:aaea22:335700 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Bonomo, Therese & Schanzenbach, Diane Whitmore, 2024. "Trends in the school lunch program: Changes in selection, nutrition & health," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    3. Krista Ruffini & Orgül Öztürk & Pelin Pekgün, 2023. "In-Kind Government Assistance and Crowd-Out of Charitable Services: Evidence from Free School Meals," CESifo Working Paper Series 10763, CESifo.
    4. Davis, Will & Kreisman, Daniel & Musaddiq, Tareena, 2023. "The Effect of Universal Free School Meals on Child BMI," IZA Discussion Papers 16387, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Zhao, Vivian, 2025. "Free food for thought: The effect of universal free school meals on graduation rates in the US," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    6. Arteaga, Irma & Heflin, Colleen & Gable, Sara, 2016. "The impact of aging out of WIC on food security in households with children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 82-96.
    7. Irma Arteaga & Colleen Heflin & Sarah Parsons, 2019. "Design Flaws: Consequences of the Coverage Gap in Food Programs for Children at Kindergarten Entry," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(2), pages 265-283, June.
    8. Seufert, Verena & Ramankutty, Navin & Mayerhofer, Tabea, 2017. "What is this thing called organic? – How organic farming is codified in regulations," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 10-20.
    9. Craig Gundersen, 2019. "The Right to Food in the United States: The Role of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 101(5), pages 1328-1336, October.
    10. Charalampia N. Anastasiou & Kiriaki M. Keramitsoglou & Nikos Kalogeras & Maria I. Tsagkaraki & Ioanna Kalatzi & Konstantinos P. Tsagarakis, 2017. "Can the “Euro-Leaf” Logo Affect Consumers’ Willingness-To-Buy and Willingness-To-Pay for Organic Food and Attract Consumers’ Preferences? An Empirical Study in Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-17, August.
    11. Craig Gundersen & David R. Just & Craig Gundersen & Emily Engelhard & Monica Hake, 2017. "The Determinants of Food Insecurity among Food Bank Clients in the United States," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 501-518, November.
    12. Quaresima Federico & Santolini Raffaella & Fiorillo Fabio, 2020. "Political affiliation in post-parliamentary careers in Italian public enterprises," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 21(1), pages 35-64, April.
    13. Nicholas Moellman & Cody N. Vaughn, 2024. "Medicaid generosity and food hardship among children," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(2), pages 400-419, March.
    14. Gouvêa, Raphael & Girardi, Daniele, 2021. "Partisanship and local fiscal policy: Evidence from Brazilian cities," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    15. Ralston, Katherine & Treen, Katie & Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Guthrie, Joanne, 2017. "Children’s Food Security and USDA Child Nutrition Programs," Economic Information Bulletin 259730, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    16. Bury, Yannick & Feld, Lars P. & Köhler, Ekkehard A., 2025. "Do party ties increase transfer receipts in cooperative federalism? – Evidence from Germany," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    17. Louis‐Philippe Beland & Bulent Unel, 2019. "Politics and entrepreneurship in the US," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(1), pages 33-57, February.
    18. O'Hara, Jeffrey K. & Benson, Matthew, 2017. "Local Food Production and Farm to School Expenditures," 2017 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2017, Mobile, Alabama 252669, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    19. Kammas, Pantelis & Poulima, Maria & Sarantides, Vassilis, 2023. "Fueling the party machine: Evidence from Greece during Metapolitefsi," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    20. Potrafke, Niklas & Roesel, Felix, 2020. "The urban–rural gap in healthcare infrastructure: does government ideology matter?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 54(3), pages 340-351.
    21. Seung Jin Cho, 2022. "The effect of aging out of the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program on food insecurity," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 664-685, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:apecpp:v:47:y:2025:i:1:p:199-216. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2040-5804 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.