This collection is a revision of a currently approved collection for determining eligibility for free and reduced price meals and free milk as stated in FNS regulations.
This request for approval of information collection is necessary to obtain input into the development of nutrition education interventions for population groups served by FNS. Collection of this information will increase FNS' ability to formulate nutrition education interventions that resonate with the intended target population, particularly low-income families.
A local school wellness policy is a written document of official policies that guide a local educational agency (LEA) or school district’s efforts to establish a school environment that promotes students’ health, well-being, and ability to learn by supporting healthy eating and physical activity.
This page contains regulations, policy memos, and other guidance materials relating to the nutrition standards for the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program.
FNS issued eight child nutrition programs off-site monitoring fact sheets to assist states and sponsors in conducting off-site monitoring of child nutrition programs during the pandemic. These documents include a fact sheet that has background information on all programs, as well as separate facts sheets for state and local operators for each program.
This collection is a revision of a currently approved collection for determining eligibility for free and reduced price meals and free milk as stated in FNS regulations. These federal requirements affect eligibility under the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, and the Special Milk Program and are also applicable to the Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program when individual eligibility must be established
The Special Milk Program provides milk to children in schools, child care institutions and eligible camps that do not participate in other federal child nutrition meal service programs. The program reimburses schools and institutions for the milk they serve. In 2011, 3,848 schools and residential child care institutions participated, along with 782 summer camps and 527 non‐residential child care institutions. Schools in the National School Lunch or School Breakfast Programs may also participate in the Special Milk Program to provide milk to children in half‐day pre‐kindergarten and kindergarten programs where children do not have access to the school meal programs.
The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or no-cost lunches to children each school day. The program was established under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1946.
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.
This memorandum informs stakeholders on the progress made by FNS in updating the food crediting system for all child nutrition programs. This is a first step towards improving the crediting system to best address today’s evolving food and nutrition environment and meet the needs of those operating and benefiting from the CNPs.