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.
Recently, FNS has received a number of questions related to buying local meat, poultry, game, and eggs; this memorandum seeks to clarify the regulatory requirements related to food safety and answer specific questions related to these products with a series of questions and answers.
This guidance memo addresses sponsors’ monitoring requirements of its sites and food service operations in the SFSP. This guidance applies to sponsors’ management responsibilities of conducting initial site visits and full reviews of food service, including visits of non-congregate rural meal sites.
Guidance for state agencies to develop criteria for site selection for monitoring reviews in the Summer Food Service Program.
The purpose of this memorandum is to provide guidance on submitting an administrative match waiver request for substantial burden [substantial burden waiver].
This memorandum provides information on the revised Prototype Application for Free and Reduced Price School Meals. USDA updated the prototype application to improve the user experience for applicants by adjusting the reading level, streamlining the application instructions, and by adding clarity to the mailing instructions to reduce the number of applications sent to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.
The purpose of this new collection is to collect qualitative and quantitative stakeholder feedback through meetings, focus groups, interviews, other stakeholder interactions and surveys, as well as requests for administrative data, as part of the planning process for FNS regulatory actions, the semi-annual regulatory agenda, research studies, outreach, training and the development of guidance.
FNS plans to collect periodic data to obtain information on operational challenges facing institutions who operate or administer child nutrition programs, including state agencies, SFAs and Summer Food Service Program sponsors. The Operational Challenges in Child Nutrition Programs (OCCNP) Surveys, are designed to collect timely data on emerging school food service operational challenges, including but not limited to supply chain disruptions, food costs, and labor shortages, and/or related issues in SY 2023–2024, 2024–2025, and SY 2025–2026.
This is a revision to a currently approved collection, to prevent a lapse in OMB approval of data collection. This collection allows for Food Distribution Programs, such as the National School Lunch Program, the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, and The Emergency Food Assistance Program, to run effectively.
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.