FNS Documents & Resources

This guidance updates previously issued Questions and Answers to clarify SFSP requirements. It supersedes SFSP 05-2017, Summer Food Service Program Questions and Answers, Dec. 1, 2016.

The purpose of this memorandum is to revise guidance on rural designations in the Summer Food Service Program and the National School Lunch Program’s Seamless Summer Option (SSO). The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 authorized a permanent non-congregate meal service option through the SFSP and SSO for children who live in rural communities with no congregate meal service. This memorandum supersedes SFSP policy memorandum SFSP 17-2015, Rural Designations in the Summer Food Service Program – Revised, April 21, 2017.

In accordance with FDPIR regulations at 7 CFR 253.6(b), Native Hawaiian households that move to the mainland and live in an approved service area near the reservation, or in Oklahoma, must contain at least one household member who is recognized as a member of an Indian tribe to be eligible to participate in FDPIR. 

Many employers provide flexible benefit packages that give employees choice and control over employer-provided benefits. These flexible benefit packages are also referred to as “cafeteria plans,” because employees choose among two or more benefits.

Military reservists who are called to active duty may be absent from the home for an extended period of time. A reservist who is not living at home, but is residing elsewhere with his/her military unit, would not be considered a part of his/her household for FDPIR purposes. 

FD-023 policy memo accounting for donated foods in cost-reimbursable contracts between school food authorities and food service management companies