FNS Documents & Resources

On April 25, 2024, FNS published the final rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent With the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This rule includes minor updates to the Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program to better align Child Nutrition Program requirements. These updates represent continued progress toward supporting the nutrition quality of school meals, strengthening the Child Nutrition Programs, and advancing USDA’s commitment to nutrition security. 

This rulemaking finalizes long-term school nutrition requirements based on the goals of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025, robust stakeholder input, and lessons learned from prior rulemakings.

Healthy Eating Index scores range from 0 to 100 and are a measure of diet quality used to assess how well a set of foods aligns with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A higher score is ideal. The FDPIR Food Package scores an 84. This is higher than the average U.S. diet, which scores a 59.

Congress passed a law in late 2022 to help SNAP participants who are victims of card skimming, cloning and other similar methods. To implement this new law, states are working quickly to develop and implement processes to help people whose SNAP benefits were stolen seek and obtain relief. FNS will list plans on this page as they are approved

FNS is working closely with our state and federal partners, SNAP retailers, EBT processors, and other industry experts to protect SNAP benefits and combat SNAP fraud.

Guidance, resources, best practices, and training for CACFP operators to support them in providing healthy, balanced meals and snacks to the children and adults they serve.

FNS monitors SNAP-authorized retailers and transaction data and investigates potential concerns as illustrated in this SNAP infographic highlighting retailer compliance.