FNS Documents & Resources

This guidance is designed to give you, as a monitor for a program sponsor, a working knowledge of the SFSP and your duties and responsibilities as the sponsor’s representative.

Attached to this memorandum, please find a revised edition of the Prototype Application for Free and Reduced Price School Meals, with an accompanying instructions document. These materials may be adapted for direct use by state and local agencies, or as a reference for designing an effective application packet that meets all statutory and regulatory requirements. 

The purpose of this memorandum is to revise guidance on rural designations in the Summer Food Service Program and the National School Lunch Program’s Seamless Summer Option (SSO). The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 authorized a permanent non-congregate meal service option through the SFSP and SSO for children who live in rural communities with no congregate meal service. This memorandum supersedes SFSP policy memorandum SFSP 17-2015, Rural Designations in the Summer Food Service Program – Revised, April 21, 2017.

FNS is releasing new guidance today to assist states in the development of Pandemic EBT (P-EBT) plans for the summer of 2023. The guidance consists of a Q&A document and a summer P-EBT plan template.

The term "Alternate Protein Product" is the name used by FNS to identify products meeting requirements set forth in Appendix A of the NSLP, SBP, SFSP, and the CACFP within the section entitled Alternate Protein Products.

On July 7, 2022, the FNS hosted a webinar with the National CACFP Sponsors Association, along with other national allies to discuss the child nutrition program operations for summer 2022. Questions and answers are provided based on the nationwide waiver flexibilities issued through the Keep Kids Fed Act of 2022.

The Food Buying Guide for child nutrition programs has all of the current information in one manual to help you and your purchasing agent buy the right amount of food and the appropriate type of food for your program(s), and determine the specific contribution each food makes toward the meal pattern requirements.

These questions and answers provide guidance for recently published transitional standards for milk, whole grains and sodium.

This guidance describes $1 billion being provided by FNS to enhance local school districts’ ability to purchase foods for school meals by offering resources needed to address supply chain challenges directly to schools and school districts.

FNS has used its authority under FFRCA to waive certain onsite monitoring requirements for the school meals programs, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the Summer Food Service Program, so that programs can to maintain program integrity and support social distancing while providing meals.