Every year, all sponsors are federally required to report site-level data (totals of identified and enrolled students) to CDE School Nutrition to determine eligibility for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). All sponsors must submit current year data, as of April 1 for all sites in the Colorado Nutrition Portal by Friday, April 9. Identified students include any student who has been certified for free school meals without the use of a household application. This refers to students directly certified with documentation from:
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Extended eligibility with SNAP
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF, Basic Cash Assistance and State Diversion only)
Extended Eligibility with TANF
Federal Distribution Program on Indian Reservation (FDPIR)
Foster children certified through means other than an household application
Migrant children certified by a migrant coordinator
Runaway and homeless youth, as defined under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Act or under the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act.
Children enrolled in a federally funded Head Start Program, or a comparable state funded pre-kindergarten program
Students approved by a local education official
Note: Do not include students with free benefits from income applications in the identified student totals.
CDE School Nutrition will notify eligible sponsors for district-wide CEP eligibility by Thursday, April 15, and this information will be posted on the CEP webpage. Sponsors interested in implementing CEP must notify CDE SchoolNutrition by Wednesday, June 30. Details on this process will follow. No extensions will be granted. CEP is a meal service model that allows eligible districts to serve meals at no cost to students at participating sites. If your district is eligible, CDE School Nutrition will talk you through what that means to find out if it is a right fit for you.
Register for the monthly call at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 27. Each call discusses Farm to School topics and features a recipe and culinary demonstration that highlights locally grown and produced products. April’s call will highlight Colorado Farm to School programs. The April culinary demo features mushrooms, onions and barley.
Attend both Pandemic-Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) webinars:
General Overview of P-EBT: 2 p.m. on Thursday, April 1. An overview of P-EBT, outreach materials and required student data. Register here.
P-EBT Data Collection: 2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6. Overview of the file layout requirements and description of the uploading process and required uploading timeframe for P-EBT. Register here.
Register here for the summer meals sponsor training from 1:30-3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 30. This training is highly recommended for new sponsors and covers current program flexibilities, strategies to operate a compliant summer program, financial management, procurement practices and resources to make the most of your summer program.
For questions or training accommodations (i.e. speaker notes), contact Alicia Grove at grove_a@cde.state.co.us or 720-795-2038.
Watch the February 'On the Menu' call recording
February's On the menu call is available. Participants learn about community engagement for the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) from Colorado sponsors, Hunger Free Colorado and Cooking Matters.
