FNS Documents & Resources

The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will discontinue the requirement for vendors to use high security seals to secure USDA Foods deliveries as of July 1, 2023. 

The Food Buying Guide for child nutrition programs has all of the current information in one manual to help you and your purchasing agent buy the right amount of food and the appropriate type of food for your program(s), and determine the specific contribution each food makes toward the meal pattern requirements.

These handouts provide general recommendations on handwashing, cleaning, and disinfecting, to operators of USDA Foods household programs including CSFP, TEFAP, and FDPIR. 

A set of three handouts on best practices to help you safely handle and store USDA foods at home.

This memorandum is meant to provide clarification and guidance on policies and procedures for donated food storage and distribution as they relate to product dating.

Offer versus Serve is a provision in the NSLP and School Breakfast Program that allows students to decline some of the food offered. The goals of OVS are to reduce food waste in the school meals programs while permitting students to decline foods they do not intend to eat. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published the final rule, Nutrition Labeling of Standard Menu Items in Restaurants and Similar Retail Food Establishments in the Federal Register (79 FR 71155) on Dec. 1, 2014.

In this Oct. 16, 2014, webinar, Christina Riley of FNS provides an overview of USDA Foods nutrition, and Scott Richardson of Project Bread, Laurie Colgan of the Vermont Agency of Education, and Ed Herrera of the Idaho State Department of Education present school meals recipe resources developed by their organizations.

This manual was developed to provide an overview of the recall process for USDA Foods with a focus on school meals programs.

This instruction is intended to clarify allowable variations to child nutrition program food components in order to meet religious needs among Jewish schools, institutions and sponsors.