FNS Documents & Resources

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.

FNS is conducting additional demonstration projects to expand the evaluation of direct certification with Medicaid for both free and reduced price meal eligibility in NSLP and SBP.

USDA Foods from Farm to Plate e-letters feature resources, news, and best practices, rotating our monthly focus between a trio of program-specific e-letters.

Find resources to implement, sustain and maintain your farm to school program. 

The Dirt is the Patrick Leahy Farm to School program monthly e-newsletter with updates, webinar info, relevant news, and field notes. 

The USDA Foods Toolkit is a collection of valuable resources to assist child nutrition professionals in effectively using their USDA Food entitlement and to help them educate students, staff, and the community about the healthy contributions that USDA Foods provide to their meal programs.