A final rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Community Eligibility Provision-Increasing Options for Schools (88 FR 65778), was published on Sept. 26, 2023, with an effective date of Oct. 26, 2023, that established the 25 percent minimum ISP threshold. As a result, more students, households, and schools have the opportunity to experience CEP’s benefits, such as increasing access to school meals at no cost, eliminating unpaid meal charges, minimizing stigma, and streamlining meal service operations.
This Instruction establishes policy for charging allowable costs associated with the administration of TEFAP, and for assigning such costs to states and eligible recipient agencies (ERAs). Such classification of costs is necessary in order to demonstrate compliance with the statutory and regulatory requirements described in section II, of this document.
It has come to our attention that there is still some question regarding the ability of state agencies and sponsoring organizations to use “stop payments” (suspension of all program reimbursement to institutions or providers) as a tool to enforce an institution or a provider’s compliance with program requirements.