FNS Documents & Resources

The Food Plans represent a nutritious diet at four different cost levels. The nutritional bases of the Food Plans are the 1997-2005 Dietary Reference Intakes, 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and 2005 MyPyramid food intake recommendations. In addition to cost, differences among plans are in specific foods and quantities of foods. Another basis of the Food Plans is that all meals and snacks are prepared at home. For specific foods and quantities of foods in the Food Plans, see Thrifty Food Plan, 2006 (2007) and The Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans, 2007 (2007). All four Food Plans are based on 2001-02 data and updated to current dollars by using the Consumer Price Index for specific food items.

It has recently come to our attention that under PL 104-204 and 106-419, benefits paid by the Veterans Administration to the children of Vietnam veterans born with congenital spina bifida and certain other birth defects are excludable as income for food stamp purposes.

Several state agencies have recently asked FNS to approve increases in their Standard Utility Allowances (SUA’s) for heating and cooling based on projections of substantial price increases in energy sources – particularly natural gas. We are aware of broad interest in the issue of the impact of higher energy prices on household budgets and appreciate the conferences and correspondence that bring this issue to our attention.

The purpose of this policy memo is to notify state agencies of the specific record retention requirements for recent QC review periods. As required by regulations, QC records must be retained for three years following fiscal closure

The following policy memoranda are superseded by revisions to the FNS 310 Handbook and are now obsolete. At the end of the memos being cancelled is a list of the current QC policy Memos.

On Dec. 8, 2004, the President signed The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005. This law contains a provision which excludes from consideration as income in the Food Stamp Program additional pay received by military personnel as a result of deployment to a combat zone.

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 requires that children in food stamp households be directly certified for free school meals. To prepare for the phased in implementation of mandatory direct certification, which begins for the largest school districts in July 2006 and covers all school districts by July 2008, we convened a work group on Jan. 26–27, 2005.

This policy memo provides clarification on food loss as an eligibility factor for the Disaster Food Stamp Program.

Using Food Stamp Quality Control data from fiscal year 2000, this analysis suggests that the simplified reporting policies adopted by states in 2004 could have lowered error rates by 1.2 to 1.5 percentage points.

The provisions of the final rule entitled, Child and Adult Care Food Program: Increasing the Duration of Tiering Determinations for Day Care Homes, published on Feb. 22, 2005, at 70 FR 8501, could not become effective until approval of the associated information collection requirements by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Those requirements were cleared by OMB on Aug. 18, 2005 under OMB Control Number 0584-0055. This document announces the effective date of the provisions contained in the originally-published rule.