FNS Documents & Resources

The purpose of this memorandum is to clarify the WIC blood lead screening provision reflected in the FY 2001 WIC Appropriations Act.

We have received several inquiries regarding the collection of eligibility information during a Provision 2 or Provision 3 cycle.

The National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program are central parts of a national policy designed to safeguard the nutritional well-being of the Nation’s children. Despite the progress that has been achieved over the years in enhancing the quality of school meals, results of research conducted in the early 1990s indicated that school meals, on balance, were not meeting certain key nutritional goals. 

The NSLP offers free and reduced-price school meals to students from eligible households. Households with incomes at or below 130 percent of poverty are eligible for free meals, and households with incomes between 131 percent and 185 percent of poverty are eligible for reduced-price meals. Traditionally, to receive these benefits, households had to complete and submit application forms to schools or be directly certified. Direct certification, on the other hand, is a method of eligibility determination that does not require families to complete school meal applications. Instead, school officials use documentation from the local or state welfare agency that indicates that a household participates in AFDC or food stamps as the basis for certifying students for free school meals.

This memorandum is intended to provide Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children and Commodity Food Program state agencies with guidance for more effective management of these programs in areas where both WIC and CSFP operate.

The WIC program provides a combination of direct nutritional supplementation, nutrition education and counseling, and increased access to health care and social service providers for pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women; infants; and children up to the age of five years. WIC seeks to improve fetal development and reduce the incidence of low birthweight, short gestation, and anemia through intervention during the prenatal period. Infants and children who are at nutritional or health risk receive food supplements, nutrition education, and access to health care services to maintain and improve their health and development.

This document clarifies SA’s oversight responsibilities for food safety inspections under the National School Lunch Program or the School Breakfast Program.

This memorandum extends this categorical eligibility provision to the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, the Special Milk Program for Children, and closed enrolled sites in the Summer Food Service Program.

WIC provides supplemental foods, nutrition education and access to health care to pregnant, breastfeeding and postpartum women, infants, and children up to age five. Since its inception in the early 1970’s, the program has received fairly widespread support and it has grown in size to serve 7.4 million participants in FY 1998 at an annual cost of around $4 billion.

The purpose of this memorandum is to clarify FNS policy regarding breast milk from a human milk bank as an allowable substitute for WIC-eligible formulas.