This rulemaking finalizes long-term school nutrition requirements based on the goals of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025, robust stakeholder input, and lessons learned from prior rulemakings.
This final rule - Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent With the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans - is the next step in continuing the science-based improvement of school meals and advancing USDA’s commitment to nutrition security.
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 webpage is intended for summer meals providers, and others who may provide food safety training or technical assistance for summer meals operations.
Many children across the U.S rely on school meals for nutrition. In 2022, the USDA’s National School Lunch Program served 4.9 billion children. School meals should keep kids healthy and help them reach their full potential by providing the nutrition they need.
Check out this database to access vendor-specific product information for all direct delivered USDA Foods for the National School Lunch Program.
Produce Safety University is a one-week training course designed to help school foodservice staff identify and manage food safety risks associated with fresh produce.
The FNS Food Safety division develops education, instruction and technical assistance resources for individuals working in federally funded nutrition assistance programs such as the NSLP, SBP, CACFP, and SFSP. Many of these resources are created in partnership with the Institute of Child Nutrition.