FNS Documents & Resources

Attached to this memorandum, please find a revised edition of the Prototype Application for Free and Reduced Price School Meals, with an accompanying instructions document. These materials may be adapted for direct use by state and local agencies, or as a reference for designing an effective application packet that meets all statutory and regulatory requirements. 

The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will discontinue the requirement for vendors to use high security seals to secure USDA Foods deliveries as of July 1, 2023. 

The purpose of this guidance is to clarify how to determine eligibility in SY 2023-24 for severe need reimbursement for breakfasts served through the School Breakfast Program and for the two cent differential reimbursement for lunches served through the National School Lunch Program. This guidance provides clarification to SP 11-2022, Determining Eligibility for Severe Need Reimbursement for the School Breakfast Program and the Two Cent Differential Reimbursement for the National School Lunch Program in School Years 2022-23 and 2023-24. 

These questions and answers provide guidance for recently published transitional standards for milk, whole grains and sodium.

This memo is to announce extensions of needed flexibilities for summer 2021 operations for the Summer Food Service Program, the National School Lunch Program, and the NSLP Seamless Summer Option.

FNS waives, for all states, the requirements to serve SFSP and NSLP Seamless Summer Option meals that meet the meal pattern requirements during the public health emergency due to COVID–19. This waiver extends the Nationwide Waiver to Allow Meal Pattern Flexibility in the Summer Food Service Program – Extension 7, granted on Aug. 31, 2020, that expires on Dec. 31, 2020.

This waiver extends until June 30, 2021, the Nationwide Waiver to Extend Area Eligibility Waivers – Extension 2. It applies to state agencies administrating, and local organizations operating, the SFSP and NSLP Seamless Summer Option (SSO).

This memorandum includes questions and answers for state agencies and local program operators on flexibilities available under the child nutrition programs during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

This memorandum provides clarification on nationwide waivers related available to all states, school food authorities and sponsoring organizations providing monitoring flexibilities in child nutrition programs during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency. 

School food authorities participating in the School Breakfast Program may continue to credit any vegetable offered, including potatoes and other starchy vegetables, in place of fruit without including vegetables from other subgroups in the weekly menus, through June 30, 2021.