FNS Documents & Resources

School meals are required to meet specific nutrition standards to operate the school meals programs. The standards align school meals with the latest nutrition science and the real world circumstances of America’s schools. 

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.

The Request for Information will be available for public comment through April 23, 2018.  The comment period for the Request for Information that was published on Dec. 14, 2017 (82 FR 58792) has been extended from Feb. 12, 2018 to April 23, 2018.

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.

Three time Olympian and Co-chair of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition talks about the benefits of a nutritious school breakfast. The School Breakfast Program includes healthier options starting Fall 2013 as a result of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act passed by congress in 2010. USDA's Food and Nutrition Service is supporting schools as they make improvements school meals and other foods sold in schools. 

Olympic gold medalist and record-setting track and field sprinter Allyson Felix, a member of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, explains how school breakfast can help students energize their days. The School Breakfast Program includes healthier options starting Fall 2013 as a result of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act passed by congress in 2010. USDA's Food and Nutrition Service is supporting schools as they make improvements to school meals and other foods sold in schools.

The new standards will allow schools to offer healthier snack foods for our children, while limiting junk food served to students. Students will still be able to buy snacks that meet common-sense standards for fat, saturated fat, sugar, and sodium, while promoting products that have whole grains, low fat dairy, fruits, vegetables or protein foods as their main ingredients.

El Centro para Organizaciones Religiosas y Comunitarias del Departamento de Agricultura de los EEUU y el Servicio de Alimentos y Nutrición están colaborando con los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades para organizar un webinar, o seminario virtual, en español que se enfoca en la iniciativa de Cuidado Infantil del programa Cuidado Infantil ¡A Moverse! (Let's Move! Child Care) de la Primera Dama Michelle Obama para prevenir la obesidad infantil.

This memorandum provides information relating to section 205 of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. This provision requires school food authorities participating in the National School Lunch Program to ensure that schools are providing the same level of support for lunches served to students who are not eligible for free or reduced price lunches (i.e., paid lunches) as they are for lunches served to students eligible for free lunches.