We hope to you see at this year’s California School Nutrition Association’s Annual Conference in Palm Springs. We’re hosting a discussion on school meals eligibility, we invite you to join our workshop.
More Than Meals: The Many Benefits of Increasing School Meals Eligibility
Saturday, October 28, 2023
1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Session G
Objective: In this interactive session, participants will understand their work on direct certification and alternative income form collection enables numerous benefits to their students, households, and schools, including increased LCFF funding and eligibility for out-of-school-time nutrition programs such as the upcoming Summer EBT program.
Description: The benefits of school meals have been made widely available through state legislation. During this past school year, California became the first state in the country to provide universal free school meals. With required implementation of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for meal reimbursement and the allocation of state funds covering the remainder of the cost of school meal operations, schools and districts have the funding necessary to make school meals for all students a reality. While school meal operations have access to the funding they need, the activities that traditionally have been part of the strategies to make school meal operations feasible remain important for students, their households, and their schools.
The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) uses free and reduced-price (F/RP) meal eligibility as a factor for allocating grant funds, so it is important to continue to identify these students through the collection of F/RP meal applications, alternative income forms, and direct certification through CalFresh, Medi-Cal, CalWORKs, and FDPIR. Increasing the number of students participating and matched in the direct certification-eligible programs ensures that more students are able to participate in important out-of-school-time nutrition programs, including after-school and summer meals as well as the Summer EBT program (starting summer 2024). Participants will leave this session with a systems perspective of the impact of direct certification and alternative income form collection and actionable ideas for implementation of improved direct certification and alternative income form collection activities.
Presented by:
Robin Hernandez, RD
School Meals Access Manager
No Kid Hungry CA
Robin Hernandez is the School Meals Access Manager for the No Kid Hungry CA team. She focuses on providing technical support to school districts and leveraging partnerships that increase school meal participation. She served as co-chair of the Quad-County Collaborative of Southern California. She is a Registered Dietitian and holds a degree in Nutrition and Food Science from California State University, San Bernardino. Previously, she worked as the Nutrition Specialist at Redlands Unified School District where she planned and implemented the Summer Meals Program, CACFP, Special Diets Program, and collaborated with city and community agencies. Prior to that, she worked with the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools as a Nutrition Educator, providing nutrition education and TA to teachers, administrators and students countywide.
Regis Whaley, MPH
Senior Manager, Education & Training
Center for Best Practices
Regis is responsible for identifying best practices and providing technical assistance to support our Student Eligibility work as well as overseeing projects related to our School Meals Modernization work. Prior to joining Share Our Strength in 2023, Regis worked for seven years at Three Square Food Bank, serving in numerous roles to build the organization’s capacity to leverage data, technology, and policy to reduce hunger and food insecurity in Southern Nevada. He holds a B.A. in psychology and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and is currently a Bloomberg Fellow completing his Doctor of Public Health degree at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Last Reviewed: October 17, 2023