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. 

This webinar is Part 3 of our webinar series “Demystifying USDA Food Complaints.” It focuses on results and resolution in the USDA Foods complaint process for USDA Foods in schools. The USDA Foods Complaint Team, as represented by Tony Wilkins, presents different scenarios as USDA Foods are transported from the vendor to their final destination, school kitchens. The intended audience is individuals involved with the National School Lunch Program: SFAs and all distributing agencies and recipient agencies, including SDAs as well as schools and warehouses.

No later than July 1, 2017, all school food authorities (SFAs) operating National School Lunch and/or School Breakfast Program must have a written policy in place to address situations where children participating at the reduced price or paid rate do not have money to cover the cost of a meal at the time of the meal service. SFAs have discretion in developing the specifics of their policies, and FNS expects charge policies will vary based on local circumstances and available resources. This webinar provides an overview of the local charge policy requirement and shares best practices for successful policy development.

In this webinar for state distributing agencies and recipient agencies, Tony Wilkins of the Food Distribution Division reviews best practices for using WBSCM in resolving complaints, provides analysis of USDA Foods complaint trends, shares 2016 complaint successes, and discusses what’s in the complaint pipeline.

There has been confusion about how unpaid meal charges must be handled when all collection efforts have been exhausted. To help address these situations, this memorandum clarifies the processes of designating delinquent debt that has been determined to be uncollectable as bad debt and obtaining assistance to offset bad debt losses.

Andre Orange and Tony Wilkins of the FNS Food Distribution Division share real-life examples of USDA Foods complaints as they provide helpful tips on how to handle and prevent these scenarios.

This is Part One of a three-part webinar series that explains the USDA Foods Complaint Process. In this Dec. 11, 2015, webinar, Andre Orange and Tony Wilkins of the Food Distribution Division provide an overview of the USDA Foods complaint process.

Grant Summaries

This report uses statistical modeling techniques to assess the relationship between direct certification performance and specific State practices, seeking best practices and providing recommendations for States to use when developing their Continuous Improvement Plans.

FNS invites state agencies that administer the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program to apply to participate in demonstration projects that will evaluate the effectiveness of conducting direct certification with the Medicaid program.