BY MATT LINDSEY
North Country This Week

School lunches will be free for many St. Lawrence County students, but parents are encouraged to apply for free or reduced meals in all cases.

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a program that provides free meals to high poverty schools.

St. Lawrence County schools to offer free meals are: Brasher, Clifton-Fine, Edwards-Knox, Gouverneur, Hammond, Hermon-DeKalb, Heuvelton, Massena, Morristown, Norwood-Norfolk and Ogdensburg.

This means parents in all other districts will need to send cash, fill up online food accounts, or apply for free or reduced meals based on income if students plan to eat school breakfasts or lunches.

Parents always have the option to send a meal from home.

Families are always encouraged to complete a Free and Reduced-Price School Meals application to see if their children are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals.

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a non-pricing meal service option for schools and school districts in low-income areas. 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).

School officials still want parents and guardians to submit free and reduced-price meal eligibility forms. Schools use the number of families eligible for free and reduced-price meals to apply for funding.

All schools offer free and reduced meal rates to families meeting certain income requirements, and school officials urge families to submit forms. This will allow for a smoother transition in dealing with meal payments at schools.