This guidance serves as a general reminder to state agencies about the importance of complying with the Buy American provisions that are found in the regulations of the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.
We continue to receive questions regarding procurements in the child nutrition programs, particularly in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Attached are the most recently received questions and answers.
It has come to our attention that a number of state agencies and school food authorities are failing to maintain appropriate records for procurement transactions occurring in connection with the child nutrition programs.
This guidance was issued upon our learning that a number of school food authorities were not drafting their own specifications and procurement documents for certain software acquisitions but instead directly incorporating a list of features written by a prospective bidder.
The recipes from the 1988 Quantity Recipes for School Food Service and the 1995 Tool Kit for Healthy School Meals were revised using updated yields from the Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs and using the 2005 Food Code for the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points.