We analyze the effect of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), a universal free-lunch program, on elementary and middle school students' academic performance and attendance in the state of South Carolina. As part of the program, eligible schools can provide free lunches to all students, regardless of whether an individual student qualifies for free or reduced lunch. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we show that CEP leads to about 0.06 of a standard deviation increase in math test scores for elementary school students. We find smaller effects on reading scores and on middle school students. These effects also vary by student poverty, school poverty, and locality. In particular, we find students that were previously eligible for free lunches but not on other public assistance programs benefit the most from CEP. The results may suggest that the expansion of access to free lunch help improve students' academic outcomes.

我们分析了社区资格条款（CEP）（一项普遍的免费午餐计划）对南卡罗来纳州中小学生的学习成绩和出勤率的影响。作为该计划的一部分，符合条件的学校可以为所有学生提供免费午餐，无论单个学生是否有资格获得免费午餐或减价午餐。使用差异差异方法，我们表明CEP导致小学生数学考试成绩的标准偏差增加了约0.06。我们发现对阅读成绩和中学生的影响较小。这些影响还因学生贫困，学校贫困和地区而异。特别是，我们发现以前有资格获得免费午餐但没有参加其他公共援助计划的学生从CEP中受益最大。