FNS Documents & Resources

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

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.

This memorandum permits sponsors to consider children 18 years of age and younger who participate in the Job Training Partnership Act  program as categorically eligible for the Summer Food Service 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.