FNS Documents & Resources

This notice announces the Department's annual adjustments to the Income Eligibility Guidelines to be used in determining eligibility for free and reduced price meals and free milk for the period from July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020.

FNS is issuing this memorandum in fulfillment of the commitment made in the preamble of the SNAP: Eligibility, Certification, and Employment and Training Provisions of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 final rule to provide additional guidance for state agencies on how to carry out the exclusion of certain military combat-related pay from income for purposes of SNAP eligibility determinations.

FNS will collect information to determine eligibility of children for free and reduced price meals and for free milk and to assure that there is no physical segregation of, or other discrimination against, or overt identification of children unable to pay the full price for meals or milk.

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide questions and answers to help Indian Tribal Organizations and state agencies implement provisions of the final rule: Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations: Income Deductions & Resource Eligibility.

FD-116: Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), Food Distribution Program in Indian Reservations (FDPIR), and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)

To ensure program integrity, school districts must sample household applications certified for free or reduced-price meals, contact the households, and verify eligibility. This process (known as household verification) can be burdensome for both school officials and households. Direct verification uses information from certain other means-tested programs to verify eligibility without contacting applicants. Potential benefits include: less burden for households, less work for school officials, and fewer students with school meal benefits terminated because of nonresponse to verification requests.

This supersedes the Jan. 7, 2010, version of the policy memo, Exclusion of Military Combat Pay. In addition to combat pay and other income received by deployed service members, this memorandum addresses Deployment Extension Incentive Pay.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009  created the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Fund for certain veterans, or surviving spouses of veterans, who served in the military of the Government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II. 

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide guidance regarding the rounding procedures to be used when determining the total resources and net monthly income of FDPIR applicant households.

In response to several requests and to assist state agencies and school food authorities in their compliance efforts, we are providing the following prototype contract language requiring the return of purchase incentives to SFAs.