H.R.5308: Expanding Access to School Meals Act of 2019

The Expanding Access to School Meals Act (H.R. 530) would expand eligibility for free school lunches and breakfasts to children from families that fall 200 percent below the federal poverty line (FPL) while eliminating the reduced-price category. Current law only allows children whose families are earning less than 130 percent of the FPL to be eligible for free meals, and families earning less than 185 percent of the FPL to qualify for reduced-price meals. Additionally, the bill would allow states to use Medicaid and CHIP participation data to certify students into free school meal programs directly and expand the community eligibility provision (CEP) reimbursement multiplier from 1.6 to 1.8