FNS Documents & Resources

This memorandum clarifies juice and yogurt allowances based on the child care and preschool meal pattern updates and incorporates the meal pattern flexibilities related to flavored milk. The flavored milk flexibilities apply to the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the Special Milk Program for Children effective beginning in school year 2019-2020.

This memorandum rescinds and replaces memorandum SP 10-2012 (v. 9), Questions and Answers on the Final Rule “Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs,” dated Aug. 3, 2015.

Attached are Q&As on the final rule Child Nutrition Programs: Flexibilities for Milk, Whole Grains, and Sodium Requirements (83 FR 63775, Dec. 12, 2018), which provides menu planning flexibilities in the child nutrition programs beginning July 1, 2019.

This is a flyer for the Child and Adult Care Food Program; meals served by CACFP must meet nutrition requirements established by the USDA.

This memorandum rescinds and replaces SP 22-2019, CACFP 09-2019, SFSP 08-2019 Crediting Coconut, Hominy, Corn Masa, and Corn Flour in the Child Nutrition Programs. This updated memorandum provides guidance on crediting coconut (including dried coconut), hominy, corn masa, and masa harina and clarifies how to identify popular products made from corn that can credit towards the grain requirements in the child nutrition programs, including the NSLP, SBP, CACFP and SFSP.

This resource is designed to help Child and Adult Care Food Program operators provide garden-based nutrition education for children ages 3 through 5 years in family child care settings.

Schools are an important player in overall national efforts to reduce the amount of salt that people eat. As such, schools participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs will continue to reduce the amount of salt in meals by choosing lower sodium versions of foods and flavoring foods with spices and herbs. See the resources below for information about sodium limits in school meals and guidance on selecting and preparing foods with less sodium.

School programs policy memo SP 14-2019 provides SY 2017-18 reporting guidance for the FNS-640 report. The FNS-640 form became available in FPRS on March 1, 2019. State agencies may use the attached instructions and business rules/edit check to begin and/or finalize implementation of processes for reporting and any system updates for School Year 2017-2018 reporting.

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.