FNS Documents & Resources

Professional Standards for school nutrition professionals is a key provision of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The final rule, published March 2, 2015, requires a minimum amount of annual training hours for all state directors of school nutrition programs, state director of distributing agencies, school nutrition program directors, managers, and staff.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 added a new Section 23 on Childhood Hunger Research to the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act. This section provides substantial new mandatory funding to research the causes and consequences of childhood hunger and to test innovative strategies to end child hunger and food insecurity.

This memorandum provides guidance on crediting popcorn in the child nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program.

The CACFP Halftime: Thirty on Thursdays webinar series is a set of interactive, skills-building webinars that focus on hot topics related to the updated Child and Adult Care Food Program meal patterns. This webinar will focus on how CACFP operators can use a food’s ingredient list to identify whole grain-rich items for their menus, with a focus on how to treat flour blends. 

La serie Medio tiempo del CACFP: treinta los jueves es un conjunto de seminarios web interactivos que desarrollan habilidades y se centran en temas de interés relacionados con los patrones de comidas actualizados del Programa de Alimentos para el Cuidado de Niños y Adultos (CACFP, por sus siglas en inglés). Este seminario web se enfoca en cómo los operadores del CACFP pueden usar la lista de ingredientes de un alimento para identificar alimentos ricos en grano integral para sus menús, incluyendo cómo tratar las mezclas de harinas.

This memorandum informs stakeholders on the progress made by FNS in updating the food crediting system for all child nutrition programs. This is a first step towards improving the crediting system to best address today’s evolving food and nutrition environment and meet the needs of those operating and benefiting from the CNPs.

On April 25, 2016, FNS published the final rule “Child and Adult Care Food Program: Meal Pattern Revisions Related to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010." Child nutrition program operators were required to comply with these updated meal pattern requirements no later than Oct. 1, 2017.

These colorful posters use photography shot specifically for settings participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Estos afiches coloridos usan fotografías específicas para sitios que participan en el Programa de Alimentos para el Cuidado de Niños y Adultos (CACFP, por sus siglas en inglés) y miden 11” x 17”. Estos afiches se pueden usar para fortalecer el conocimiento, las habilidades y la experiencia de los proveedores y operadores del CACFP para implementar los requisitos del patrón de comidas del CACFP.

FNS staff discuss the updated preschool meal patterns in the National School Lunch Program (including snack service) and School Breakfast Program, as well as the updated milk requirements in the Special Milk Program, which went into effect on Oct. 1, 2017.