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.
USDA and the Biden Administration are committed to supporting nutrition security – consistent access to nutritious foods that promote good health – through the federal nutrition assistance programs. School nutrition professionals have made incredible strides in strengthening child nutrition over the past decade; research shows school meals are the healthiest meals children eat in a day!
This agreement sets out the requirements for administering the child nutrition programs and the food distribution programs.
FNS has used its authority under FFRCA to waive certain onsite monitoring requirements for the school meals programs, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the Summer Food Service Program, so that programs can to maintain program integrity and support social distancing while providing meals.
This memo announces a new set of child nutrition program waivers for school year 2021-2022. Since March 2020, USDA has worked to ensure state agencies, schools and other community partners have the tools they need to maintain children’s access to nutritious meals during COVID-19.
This waiver cancels selected administrative data reporting requirements in the child nutrition programs, specifically the following: FNS-640 Administrative Review Report Form; FNS-828 School Food Authority Paid Lunch Price Report; FNS-874 Local Educational Agency Second Review of Applications; Ameliorative Action Plans for Verification Results; State Agency Food Safety Inspections Report; and Performance-Based Reimbursement (7 Cents) Quarterly Report.
Under this waiver, Summer Food Service Program and the National School Lunch Program Seamless Summer Option operators in states that elect to be subject to this waiver may serve meals at school sites during unanticipated school closures in school year 2021-22.
Under this waiver, service institutions operating the Summer Food Service Program in states, whose agencies elect to be subject to this waiver, may operate open sites in areas that are not located in “Areas in which poor economic conditions exist” during unanticipated school closures in school year 2021-2022.
Under this waiver, Summer Food Service Program operators in states that elect to be subject to this waiver, and that elected to allow non-congregate meal distribution during COVID–19-related operations via COVID-19: Child Nutrition Response #101, may distribute meals to a parent or guardian to take home to their children during an unanticipated school closure in school year 2021-22.