The National School Lunch Program Afterschool Snack Service is a federally-assisted snack service that provides cash reimbursement to encourage or assist schools in serving snacks to children after the regular school day. The afterschool snack component of the NSLP helps children fully engage in afterschool programming by filling the hunger gap many children face in the afternoon and early evening. Children participating in an approved afterschool care program age 18 and under, and participating children who turn 19 during the school year, are eligible to receive reimbursable snacks through the NSLP.
Nutrition Standards for All Foods Sold in School, Smart Snacks in Schools
The watermark, is to be applied to all CN contribution statements not supported by product specific documentation and to CN product labels that are distributed without federally inspected and packaged product.
The Child Nutrition (CN) label and a manufacturer’s Product Formulation Statement (PFS) are documents that provide a way for a manufacturer to demonstrate how a processed food product may contribute to the meal pattern requirements in child nutrition programs (CNP).
The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 directed the USDA to establish nutrition standards for all foods and beverages sold to students in school during the school day. The new Smart Snacks in School nutrition standards will help schools to make the healthy choice the easy choice by offering students more of the foods and beverages we should be encouraging – whole grains, fruits and vegetables, leaner protein, lower-fat dairy – while limiting foods with too much sugar, fat and salt.
The new standards will allow schools to offer healthier snack foods for our children, while limiting junk food served to students. Students will still be able to buy snacks that meet common-sense standards for fat, saturated fat, sugar, and sodium, while promoting products that have whole grains, low fat dairy, fruits, vegetables or protein foods as their main ingredients.
School food authorities should include a copy of the label from the purchased product package in addition to the following information on letterhead signed by an official company representative.
Formulation Statement for Documenting Grains in School Meals