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Resource | Technical Assistance & Guidance National School Lunch and School Breakfast Program Demonstration Projects to Evaluate Direct Certification with Medicaid

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.

11/09/2023
Resource | Technical Assistance & Guidance Community Eligibility Provision Resource Center

The CEP resource center provides extensive resources for parents, teachers, and school officials at the local, state and Federal level to better understand CEP and its positive benefits, along with useful tools to help facilitate successful implementation of the provision in your school!

10/12/2023
Basic page Certification of Compliance

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act initially provided an additional 6-cents per lunch reimbursement to school food authorities that were certified to be in compliance with the new meal patterns. The increased reimbursement, a significant investment in improving the quality of school meals, became available starting Oct.1, 2012. School food authorities that continue to maintain certification of compliance continue to receive this performance based funding which is adjusted annually if needed. The current performance based reimbursement rate is 8-cents per reimbursable lunch.

08/18/2023
Resource | Technical Assistance & Guidance USDA Secretary Vilsack Letter to States for SY 2022-23

Letter to states from the USDA Secretary to encourage you to help schools in your state keep kids fed despite ongoing challenges associated with the pandemic, ongoing supply chain issues, and labor shortages.

09/02/2022
Basic page CN Labeling Program

The USDA, child nutrition (CN) labeling program provides food manufacturers the option to include a standardized food crediting statement on their product label.

02/12/2021
Resource | Webinars/Videos SNMCS Webinar Series - Meeting the Updated Nutrition Standards and the Nutritional Quality of School Lunches

The findings described in this webinar are based on two analyses. One that estimated the percentage of daily and weekly lunch menus that met the updated nutrition standards, and another that examined the nutritional quality of the lunches using the Healthy Eating Index-2010.

12/20/2019
Resource | Technical Assistance & Guidance Demonstration Projects to End Childhood Hunger

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 added a new Section 23 on Childhood Hunger Research to the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act. This section provides substantial new mandatory funding to research the causes and consequences of childhood hunger and to test innovative strategies to end child hunger and food insecurity.

06/05/2019
Resource | FAQs/Q&As | FNS-GD-2019-0007 School Meals FAQs

School meals are required to meet specific nutrition standards to operate the school meals programs. The standards align school meals with the latest nutrition science and the real world circumstances of America’s schools. 

02/27/2019
Resource | Research | Food Security Evaluation of Demonstration Projects to End Childhood Hunger (EDECH): Final Interim Evaluation Report

This study—authorized by the 2010 Child Nutrition Act—tests innovative strategies to end childhood hunger and food insecurity. 

02/08/2018
Resource | Policy Memos | FNS-GD-2017-0049 2018 Direct Certification Improvement Grant RFA

The fiscal year 2018 Direct Certification Improvement Grant Request for Applications are available to state agencies that administer the National School Lunch and the School Breakfast programs to fund the costs of improving your direct certification rates with SNAP, and other needs-based assistance programs.

SP41-2017
08/15/2017
Page updated: October 14, 2021