FNS Documents & Resources

This collection of information is necessary for the application of the Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Awards by school food authorities.

This is the 2017 Edition of Overcoming the Unpaid Meal Challenge: Proven Strategies from Our Nation’s Schools. This best practice guide is designed to support state agencies and local program operators in their efforts to find workable solutions to the challenge of unpaid meal charges.

This question and answer memorandum is designed to provide an overview of policies related to unpaid meal charges and to address common questions FNS has received from state agencies, school food authorities, and local program operators.

The purpose of this memorandum is to strongly encourage local educational agencies to accept eligibility determinations from a transferring student’s former LEA to minimize disruptions in meal benefits for low-income students and avoid student debt resulting from unpaid meal charges.

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.

The purpose of this memorandum is to address the need for school food authorities participating in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program to institute and clearly communicate a meal charge policy, which would include, if applicable, the availability of alternate meals.

This policy memorandum clarifies the audit-related tracking and notification requirements for TEFAP state agencies and Eligible Recipient Agencies that further distribute or pass-through TEFAP food or funds to ERAs and are subject to audit requirements under 7 CFR Part 3052.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009  created the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Fund for certain veterans, or surviving spouses of veterans, who served in the military of the Government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II. 

FNS held a webinar to train regional personnel to conduct reviews of data submitted by TEFAP Reporting Entities pursuant to Section 1512 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

This memorandum is being issued to emphasize that states may use TEFAP administrative funds to pay for direct and indirect expenses associated with both the distribution of TEFAP foods and of foods secured from other non-federal sources. Foods secured from other sources is defined as any foods not obtained from USDA food assistance programs.