Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a meal service option for all enrolled students in eligible schools, which allows schools and school districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost without the burden of certifying students for meal benefits. Schools that adopt the CEP are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of students who are normally certified for free school meals, without an application.

Previously, 40% of students were required to be in households participating in certain income-based federal assistance programs; this has decreased to a threshold of 25%, as outlined in this final rule.  

The lowered threshold for eligibility decreasing from 40% to 25% allowed select eligible West Linn-Wilsonville Schools to now participate in the existing program.

Find more information here: State of Oregon's Community Eligibility Provision. 

All students enrolled in eligible West Linn-Wilsonville schools are able to get one free breakfast and one free lunch through the meal line at their school each day.

The 12 eligible schools include:

• Boeckman Creek Primary
• Boones Ferry Primary
• Cedaroak Park Primary
• Lowrie Primary
• Sunset Primary
• Willamette Primary
• Inza Wood Middle 
• Meridian Creek Middle
• Rosemont Ridge Middle
• Riverside High 
• Wilsonville High
• Heumann Center

Schools are only eligible for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) based on the USDA and Oregon Department of Education's eligibility determination process, which uses school demographics to determine whether a school qualifies. Currently, only 12 of the district's 17 schools qualify for CEP.

Schools qualify if at least 25% of students are directly certified or otherwise identified for free meals through State channels such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Schools also qualify if they're grouped with another school to meet the 25% threshold.

To avoid paying full price for meals, please complete your Confidential Online Application for Free & Reduced Meals as soon as possible or before the meal benefit grace period ends (typically the beginning of October) if you had meal benefits the previous year. Applications are also available in the school office.

If you do not receive an approval or denial letter within three weeks, we did not receive your application. If you do not receive a letter within three weeks of submission, please contact the Nutrition Services Department. 

Families do not need to apply if their student attends one of the eligible CEP schools. All students who attend an eligible school can receive one free breakfast and one free lunch each day through the meal line. 

Families with students who do not attend a CEP school will need to fill out an Application for Free & Reduced Meals to see if they qualify. These schools include:

• Bolton Primary
• Stafford Primary
• Trillium Creek Primary
• Athey Creek Middle 
• West Linn High

Just like the free and reduced meal program, students can get one free breakfast and one free lunch per day. 

Second meals, extra milks, and a la carte items, such as second entrees, for an individual student will be charged to their meal account so long as they have a positive balance. If your student plans to order more than one breakfast and one lunch per school day, families should make sure they have funds in their lunch account. 

No, students can only get one free breakfast and one free lunch per school day. Per USDA, individual meal components like a milk, an entrée, or piece of fruit are not considered a (complete) meal on their own. Students who wish to have only part of a meal will be charged for that item to their meal account.

Students must have a positive balance to purchase individual or a la carte items. 

Yes, enrolled students are always welcome to get a complete breakfast or lunch at school regardless of what they brought from home, unless a parent-guardian has implemented a restriction on their student's account. 

If you would like to restrict your student's account, please do so through this online form. 

Any negative account balances accrued prior to the 2024-25 school year must still be paid in full. 

Starting in 2024-25, students can get one free breakfast and one free lunch per day, at no charge, if they attend a school that is part of CEP.

You can pay your student's negative balance through SchoolPay.

You do not have to do anything, unless you want to. All money on a student’s meals account may be refunded if you do not wish to use it for a second meal or beverage. It can also be directed to a sibling account or donated to pay off other student's negative balances. 

Fill out this online form to request a refund.

If the neighborhood school that a student attends is eligible for CEP, they can receive one free breakfast and one free lunch per school day.

Meals have to be received through the meal line at their neighborhood school during a designated meal time.