FNS Documents & Resources

Updated School Meal Standards: working towards a common goal of healthy children and helping them reach their full potential.

School meals will continue to include fruits and vegetables, emphasize whole grains, and give kids the right balance of nutrients for healthy, tasty meals. For the first time, schools will focus on products with less added sugar, especially in school breakfast.

School nutrition professionals continue to make school meals the healthiest meals children eat in a day! To take school meals to the next level, USDA is updating the school nutrition standards after considering recommendations from the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans and listening to a diverse range of voices with experience in child nutrition and health.

This memorandum provides updated guidance on crediting tofu and soy yogurt products in the Child and Adult Care Food Program and extends previous guidance on crediting tofu and soy yogurt products to the Summer Food Service Program, as well as to the infant meal pattern in the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

El Manual de acreditación para el Programa de Alimentos para el Cuidado de Niños y Adultos (CACFP, por sus siglas en inglés) refleja los requisitos actualizados del patrón de comidas del CACFP.

The Crediting Handbook for the Child and Adult Care Food Program reflects the updated CACFP meal pattern requirements, which became effective October 2017.

The term "Alternate Protein Product" is the name used by FNS to identify products meeting requirements set forth in Appendix A of the NSLP, SBP, SFSP, and the CACFP within the section entitled Alternate Protein Products.

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 questions and answers provide guidance for recently published transitional standards for milk, whole grains and sodium.

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.