The National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program are central parts of a national policy designed to safeguard the nutritional well-being of the Nation’s children. Despite the progress that has been achieved over the years in enhancing the quality of school meals, results of research conducted in the early 1990s indicated that school meals, on balance, were not meeting certain key nutritional goals.
Under this proposed rule, certain afterschool care programs would earn reimbursement for snacks served which meet program requirements.
The NSLP offers free and reduced-price school meals to students from eligible households. Households with incomes at or below 130 percent of poverty are eligible for free meals, and households with incomes between 131 percent and 185 percent of poverty are eligible for reduced-price meals. Traditionally, to receive these benefits, households had to complete and submit application forms to schools or be directly certified. Direct certification, on the other hand, is a method of eligibility determination that does not require families to complete school meal applications. Instead, school officials use documentation from the local or state welfare agency that indicates that a household participates in AFDC or food stamps as the basis for certifying students for free school meals.
This proposed rule would amend the regulations for the Special Milk Program for Children, Summer Food Service Program, Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Determination of Eligibility for Free and Reduced Price Meals and Free Milk in Schools relating to the confidentiality of information about individuals who receive free and reduced price meals and free milk.
This final rule also adds a method that allows schools to use “any reasonable approach” to plan menus.
This final rule updates the requirements for using ‘‘Vegetable Protein Products’’ in the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Summer Food Service Program, and Child and Adult Care Food Program (the Child Nutrition programs).
This proposed rule would amend the regulations governing the procedures for determining eligibility for free and reduced price meals in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.