A hot topic in the nonpublic school world over the last several months is the legislation passed in the 2026 NYS Budget that enables any nonpublic school in the state to receive full reimbursement for serving free lunch to all children. The program is exactly the same as the traditional National School Lunch Program (NSLP) which runs through the NYSED Child Nutrition (CN) division. The legislation provides State dollars to supplement the reimbursement a school is entitled to from the Federal government up to full reimbursement for all children receiving a free lunch.
This program promises to be a real gamechanger for our schools with 56 new nonpublic schools applying to the program. All applicants were accepted after a month-and-a-half review process. The entire nonpublic school community, along with CN, really stepped up to make it a reality, as this isn’t an easy program to apply for and implement.
It’s important to remember that new School Food Authorities (SFAs) must undergo a mandatory, first-year review, from CN. State staff view these reviews as a way to educate the schools on best practices and set them up for long- term success. There will be preparation meetings for these reviews held in regional locations. Schools are strongly encouraged to attend a regional administrative review session. You can find the session schedule here, and click here to sign up for the administrative review session that works best for you. If you are a new RA, your first-year review will be conducted with your host SFA. In addition, any new SFA that is Provision 2 will have a separate first-year review where income verification applications will be reviewed.
What if you didn’t apply to CN to become an SFA this year? Will you still be able to run a free lunch program in the future? Although we never know the future of any legislation, there are strong indications that this program will continue and possibly grow. Our advice for schools that want to pursue a free lunch program for the 2026-27 school year is to prepare early! Most of the application components can be completed during the school year, alleviating the last-minute rush that so many schools had to go through this year. It can also save consultant costs that they charge to help a school with the application process. Next year’s application due date should shift back to the traditional June 30th date. We are excited to continue to provide useful information to schools about the lunch program. Stay tuned for more updates!