NoVa’s Richest Counties Serve Free Breakfast and Lunch to Kids

Every student enrolled in Manassas Park City Schools can eat breakfast and lunch at no charge during the 2026-27 school year, the division announced on Facebook on Oct. 27.

The meals come through the federal Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP. The program lets schools and divisions serve free meals to all students when enough of them are “identified” as low-income, mostly through direct certification from programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The Virginia Department of Education says CEP serves “the nation’s highest poverty schools and districts.” Since a 2023 federal rule change, a school or division qualifies if at least 25% of its students are identified, down from 40%.

Greg Taylor, the division’s director of school nutrition, said all Manassas Park schools will be on CEP in 2026-27. The division first adopted it at the start of the 2021-22 school year. Taylor said the division’s identified student percentage is 47.43%.

Asked whether universal free meals reflect poverty rather than an accomplishment, Taylor said: “Our community’s economic needs are not an accomplishment; however, our commitment to ensuring those needs do not prevent children from receiving nutritious meals is something we can take pride in. That acknowledges the reality of poverty without diminishing the work of the School Nutrition Department or the benefits provided to Manassas Park families.”

The division did not say what the free-meals program costs. Its budget, however, keeps meals in a separate School Nutrition Fund that runs almost entirely on federal money: about $2.4 million projected for fiscal 2026, including $2.32 million in federal funds, $72,645 from the state and $29,725 in local revenue, with no money transferred from the city, according to the division’s five-year budget forecast. Taylor said the program “has consistently maintained a positive financial position, operating in the black each year through state and federal reimbursements without placing an additional financial burden on local taxpayer.”

Taylor also said the division’s eligibility could slip. “Yes, changes to SNAP eligibility could potentially affect our ability to maintain CEP in the future,” he said. “Our eligibility percentages have been trending downward, along with student enrollment, and changes to SNAP eligibility requirements could further impact the number of students who qualify through direct certification.” He added, “Maintaining CEP may become more difficult if the percentage of directly certified students continues to decline.”

Free meals across the region

Manassas Park is not alone. In the 2024-25 school year, 11 of the 12 other public school divisions in Northern Virginia and the Fredericksburg area served free meals through CEP in at least some schools, according to the Food Research & Action Center, which compiles participation data from state agencies. Falls Church City was the exception.

Manassas City Public Schools offered free meals at all nine of its schools, and Fredericksburg City Public Schools at all five of its eligible schools. Elsewhere, participation covered only some schools: 68 in Prince William County, 47 in Fairfax County, 24 in Spotsylvania County, 11 in Loudoun County, 10 in Alexandria, nine each in Arlington and Stafford counties, two in Fauquier County and one in King George County.

In September 2023, under the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a final rule that lowered the minimum Identified Student Percentage required for the Community Eligibility Provision from 40% to 25%, effective October 26, 2023.

The change, tied to goals from the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, was designed to give more schools and districts in high-need areas the option to serve free breakfast and lunch to every student without collecting meal applications, while eliminating unpaid meal debt and reducing stigma.

USDA estimated the lower threshold would make roughly 3,000 additional school districts eligible nationwide.

Afterward, Prince William County Public Schools added 24 schools for 2024-25, extending free meals to 26,516 more students and bringing its total to 68, the division said. It lists 69 schools for 2026-27. Manassas City put all nine of its schools on CEP for 2024-25 after the federal expansion, the Prince William Times reported.

Prince William County Public Schools added 24 schools for 2024-25, extending free meals to 26,516 more students and bringing its total to 68, the division said. It lists 69 schools for 2026-27. Manassas City put all nine of its schools on CEP for 2024-25 after the federal expansion, the Prince William Times reported.

Enrollment shows how far the program reaches. In 2024-25, the 12 participating divisions enrolled 482,654 students in all, and 161,825 of them, about 34%, attended a school where every student could eat free, according to the Virginia Department of Education’s CEP report as of April 1, 2025. Prince William alone accounted for 59,226 of those students, more than a third of the regional total, and the 26,516 students it added in 2024-25 made up about 45% of its CEP enrollment that year.

Coverage varied widely. Every student in Manassas Park (3,398), Manassas City (7,572) and Fredericksburg (3,646) attended a CEP school. About three-quarters of students did in Spotsylvania and Alexandria, and nearly two-thirds did in Prince William. In the region’s largest division, Fairfax County, about 21% of students did, compared with about 8% in Loudoun and 3% in Fauquier.

The reach widened this school year again. The state’s April 2026 report lists 164,670 students in CEP schools across the same 12 divisions for 2025-26, about 35% of their enrollment, with Spotsylvania moving all 30 of its schools, and all 23,779 of its students, onto the program.

The free meals come in one of the wealthiest regions in the country. Loudoun County’s median household income, $181,765, is the highest of any U.S. county, and Fairfax County’s, $153,637, ranks fourth, according to U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey estimates for 2020-24. Median household income topped $100,000 in every locality in the region except Fredericksburg, at $86,071, compared with $93,170 statewide and $80,734 nationally. Manassas Park’s median was $103,250.

Source: Virginia Department of Education, CEP Identified Student Percentage report as of April 1, 2025 (2024-25), revised July 1, 2025. ISP is the share of students directly certified as low-income, the measure used to qualify for CEP.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 (median household income, in 2024 inflation-adjusted dollars). Margins of error are at the 90% confidence level.

‘A hungry kid can’t learn’

State Sen. Danica Roem, D-Manassas Park, whose 30th District includes the city, called CEP “a benefit for students, families and schools alike.” She noted that Manassas City Public Schools also offers free meals divisionwide through CEP and that 69 Prince William County schools take part.

“For students, providing breakfast and lunch at no cost to them or their families guarantees they don’t go hungry at any point of the school day,” Roem said. “They’re guaranteed food without stigmatizing anyone who might not have much money. As the saying goes, a hungry kid can’t learn.”

Roem said parents in CEP schools “can save more than $1,000 per student per school year.”

Asked about the argument that promoting free meals highlights need, Roem said, “I reject the premise of the argument. It’s not about highlighting need or accomplishment. It’s about acknowledging reality.” She pointed to her HB 5113 from the 2020 General Assembly special session. Under that bill, she said, schools and divisions that qualify for CEP should enroll. She said it passed 96-0 in the House of Delegates and 36-0 in the Senate.

Roem said changes to SNAP eligibility under the federal H.R. 1 law passed last year “are very real for CEP.” A drop in eligibility, she said, “means the City of Manassas Park would have to cover more of the cost.” If the division ever had to leave CEP, she said, schools “would immediately start seeing school meal debt” build up.

Roem, who chairs the Virginia Commission to End Hunger, said she will file legislation in the 2027 General Assembly session for no-cost breakfast for all students. “To be clear: my ultimate goal is school meals for all: breakfast and lunch,” she said. She said a breakfast bill’s fiscal impact typically runs in the $30 million range, compared with $170 million to $180 million for breakfast and lunch combined. She has proposed paying for it by ending the state’s sales tax exemption for data centers.

‘An entitlement for all students’

Jonathan Butcher of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said CEP does not help the students it was meant to serve.

“CEP is a sign of government overreach and an entitlement,” Butcher said. “Children in low-income homes are not helped by CEP—they are already eligible.” CEP adds students who should not otherwise be eligible under the original purpose of federal school meals policies.”

Asked whether divisions should promote CEP as an accomplishment, Butcher said, “No, CEP changes federal school meals programs into an entitlement for all students, regardless of income. School district leaders should consider it a success when they accurately identify all the students who are in need based on household income or eligibility for other federal assistance programs.”

On the lower threshold, he said, “Lowering the threshold creates additional costs for taxpayers by providing meals to middle and upper income students.”

Threshold may matter little in Virginia

Diane Pratt-Heavner, a spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association, said, “CEP is a tremendous benefit for eligible schools and the students and families they serve.” She said it “cuts through red tape, ensures all students are nourished for success without stigma and eliminates the accumulation of unpaid student lunch debt.”

“Many families whose income exceeds eligibility limits for free or reduced-price meals still struggle to afford the cost of school meals,” she said.

Pratt-Heavner said CEP is financially workable only for schools with high shares of students who automatically qualify. She said the threshold was lowered after several states began using state money for statewide free meals. “Since Virginia does not provide state funds to support free meals for all, I doubt there is broad utilization of such a low CEP threshold,” she said.

She also warned about SNAP. “As students fall off of SNAP, the resulting drop in the number of students directly certified for free meals can impact a school or district’s ability to maintain the Community Eligibility Provision,” she said. “The program operates on a 4-year cycle, so for many schools, a decision of whether to stay on CEP won’t hit for a few years. SNA is very concerned about the coming impact.”

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