As families prepare for a new school year, some Houston ISD parents will notice an important change when it comes to school meals.<\/p>\n
This school year, 33 Houston ISD campuses will no longer participate in the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)<\/a>, a program that allows qualifying schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to every student without requiring individual meal applications.<\/p>\n Students attending those campuses may still qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, but families will need to complete a meal benefits application to determine eligibility.<\/p>\n The change comes as a new study highlights a growing hunger crisis across Texas.<\/p>\n What parents need to know<\/p>\n 33 Houston ISD campuses are leaving the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP).<\/p>\n Students who qualify can still receive free or reduced-price lunch by submitting a meal benefits application.<\/p>\n Breakfast remains free for all Houston ISD students, regardless of meal eligibility.<\/p>\n There is no deadline to apply. Families can submit an application at any time during the school year.<\/p>\n Texas leads the nation in food insecurity<\/p>\n According to the Houston Food Bank\u2019s latest Map the Meal Gap study<\/a>, Texas continues to have the largest food-insecure population in the nation.<\/p>\n The report found:<\/p>\n Nearly\u00a01 in 5 Texans\u00a0are experiencing food insecurity.<\/p>\n 1 in 4 Texas children\u2014nearly\u00a02 million children\u2014are food insecure.<\/p>\n More than\u00a06 million Texans\u00a0are experiencing food insecurity.<\/p>\n In Southeast Texas,\u00a01 in 5 children\u00a0faces food insecurity.<\/p>\n Houston Food Bank President and CEO Brian Greene said children often experience higher rates of food insecurity because many live in households with younger parents who are still working to build financial stability.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, this is really surprising that children have a higher food insecurity rate. Children tend to have younger parents who are earlier in their income streams. So these are families that have less money and that struggle more to get by. And unfortunately, that often results in food insecurity.\u201d<\/p>\n For many students, breakfast and lunch served at school aren\u2019t simply convenient\u2014they\u2019re among the most reliable meals they receive each day.<\/p>\n The Community Eligibility Provision is a federal program that allows qualifying schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students without collecting individual meal applications.<\/p>\n Beginning this school year, 33 Houston ISD schools will no longer participate in the program.<\/p>\n Greene says the change doesn\u2019t mean schools are ending meal service, but it does mean some students who previously received free meals automatically may now have to qualify individually.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the districts that are moving away from that in general, it\u2019s not that they\u2019re ending lunch and breakfast, it\u2019s just that everybody doesn\u2019t qualify anymore. So we have to worry about some of the children not wanting to look like they\u2019re the kids that have to get the lunch program. Other kids, their parents may not be able to afford the difference, it\u2019s a reduced lunch. And then in general, there were a lot of the kids that, okay, they weren\u2019t that low income, but they were still benefiting from the program. So we see this as a net loss. This is going to impact health for children, long-term consequences, and this will impact education in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Houston ISD, students attending the affected campuses must have an approved meal benefits application on file to determine eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch.<\/p>\n Breakfast will continue to be provided free of charge to all HISD students.<\/p>\n As food insecurity continues to rise, the Houston Food Bank says it\u2019s working with school districts across Southeast Texas to help families access nutritious food beyond the cafeteria.<\/p>\n Greene said the organization partners with hundreds of schools throughout the region but says charitable programs alone cannot replace broader nutrition assistance.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, Houston Food Bank for years, we have our backpack program, we have our school markets, so we work with most of the school districts in the area. We work with hundreds and hundreds of schools, providing emergency food for children on weekends, but also supplemental food, working with the schools to reach the families. I do want to be clear, though, when you\u2019re talking about these kinds of losses, our volume, as depressing as this might look, is not enough to overcome that. So there is going to be an increase in childhood food insecurity from this.\u201d<\/p>\n Which Houston ISD schools are affected?<\/p>\n The following campuses will not participate in the Community Eligibility Provision during the 2026-27 school year:<\/p>\n Elementary Schools<\/p>\n Baker Montessori<\/p>\n Briarmeadow Charter School<\/p>\n Bush Elementary<\/p>\n Condit Elementary<\/p>\n Harvard Elementary<\/p>\n Helms Elementary<\/p>\n Kolter Elementary<\/p>\n Mandarin Immersion Magnet School<\/p>\n Poe Elementary<\/p>\n Sinclair Elementary<\/p>\n Twain Elementary<\/p>\n Wharton Elementary<\/p>\n Horn Elementary*<\/p>\n Oak Forest Elementary*<\/p>\n River Oaks Elementary*<\/p>\n Roberts Elementary*<\/p>\n Travis Elementary*<\/p>\n West University Elementary*<\/p>\n Middle Schools<\/p>\n Hogg Middle School<\/p>\n Lanier Middle School<\/p>\n Pin Oak Middle School<\/p>\n T.H. Rogers School<\/p>\n High Schools<\/p>\n Bellaire High School<\/p>\n Carnegie Vanguard High School<\/p>\n Challenge Early College High School<\/p>\n DeBakey High School for Health Professions<\/p>\n Energy Institute High School<\/p>\n Heights High School<\/p>\n Houston Academy for International Studies<\/p>\n Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts*<\/p>\n Lamar High School<\/p>\n Waltrip High School<\/p>\n Westside High School<\/p>\n *These campuses also did not participate during the 2025-26 school year.<\/p>\n Other Houston-area school districts<\/p>\n KPRC 2 also reached out to Fort Bend ISD.<\/p>\n Fort Bend ISD will operate the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) at the following 27 campuses for the 2026-2027 school year:<\/p>\n Willowridge High School\u00a0<\/p>\n Hightower High School\u00a0<\/p>\n Marshall High School\u00a0<\/p>\n MR Wood Center for Learning<\/p>\n Missouri City Middle School\u00a0<\/p>\n Sugar Land Middle School<\/p>\n McAuliffe Middle School<\/p>\n Hodges Bend Middle School<\/p>\n Lake Olympia Middle School<\/p>\n Jones Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Ridgemont Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Quail Valley Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Townewest Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Lantern Lane Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Hunters Glen Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Barrington Place Elementary\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Burton Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Goodman Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Jordan Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Holley Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Armstrong Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Parks Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Heritage Rose Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Ridgemont Early Literacy Center\u00a0<\/p>\n Aldridge Elementary<\/p>\n Mission Elementary\u00a0<\/p>\n Henry Elementary<\/p>\n When is the deadline to submit a free\/Reduced Price Meal Application?<\/p>\n RESPONSE: Families at non-CEP campuses can apply for Free & Reduced meals any time throughout the school year. Students who were approved for Free or Reduced-price meals for the 2025-2026 school year will have a 30-day carryover period at the beginning of the 26-27 school year. This means that those students will have last year\u2019s meal eligibility until September 23, 2026, or until they complete a new 26-27 application. So, any student who does not reapply by 9\/23\/26 will become a full-paid student on 9\/24\/26.<\/p>\n KPRC 2 also reached to Cy-Fair ISD<\/p>\n CFISD has 47 campuses that currently participate in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). A full list is available on our website here: https:\/\/nutritionservices.cfisd.net\/cafeteria-accounts\/community-eligibility-provision-cep<\/a> .<\/p>\n CEP has a four-year cycle, and CFISD is going into year three of the four years. Free and reduced meal applications are accepted year-round. Student eligibility must be established every year. The application for the 2026-27 school year went live on July 13 and is available to families by logging into their School Caf\u00e9 account. This information, as well as instructions and links, are available on the nutrition services website at www.nutritionservices.cfisd.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As families prepare for a new school year, some Houston ISD parents will notice an important change when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[62366,116049,27990,4045,56,58,57,5466,4119],"class_list":["post-396894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-classroom","tag-community-eligibility-provision","tag-fort-bend-isd","tag-hisd","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-lunch","tag-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}