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Resource | Infographics Stronger with School Meals Educational Materials

School meals, and the school nutrition professionals that provide them, help children be strong physically and mentally. Celebrate the school community and promote healthy foods with these fun new school meals materials.

08/04/2023
Resource | Webinars/Videos Unpaid Meals: Best Practices to Ensure Student Access to Meals

A webinar for state agencies and local program operators sharing proactive strategies to prevent and manage unpaid meal charges as schools return to standard counting and claiming in SY 2022-23.

08/31/2022
Resource | Technical Assistance & Guidance Local School Wellness Policies

Use these materials to bring your school community together to create strong school environments that support students’ growth, learning, and well-being. 

08/15/2022
Resource | Webinars/Videos Seeding Success: Farm to School Grant Requirements

This pre-recorded webinar features USDA Farm to School Program staff, who summarize grantee reporting requirements and review the processes for submitting no-cost extensions, as well as project and budget amendments.

03/21/2022
Resource | Policy Memos | FNS-GD-2018-0004 Providing Child Nutrition Program Benefits to Disaster Survivor Evacuees

This memorandum provides a reminder overview of options available under current program policy and regulation for connecting children and adult survivors, who have evacuated from areas subject to major disaster and emergency declarations, and may be staying in shelters, with child nutrition program benefits.

SP 05-2018, CACFP 05-2018
01/19/2018
Resource | Policy Memos | FNS-GD-2017-0013 Unpaid Meal Charges: Guidance and Q&As

This question and answer memorandum is designed to provide an overview of policies related to unpaid meal charges and to address common questions FNS has received from state agencies, school food authorities, and local program operators.

SP23-2017
03/23/2017
Resource | Policy Memos | FNS-GD-2016-0042 Ensuring Access to Free and Reduced Price School Meals for Low-Income Students

This guidance provides steps state agencies and school administrators can take to improve access to school meal programs through the application, certification, and verification processes so that all eligible children in NSLP and SBP schools have the opportunity to participate in the school meal programs.

SP43-2016
08/10/2016
Resource | Policy Memos | FNS-GD-2016-0051 Ensuring Year-long Eligibility in the School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs

The purpose of this memorandum is to strongly encourage local educational agencies to accept eligibility determinations from a transferring student’s former LEA to minimize disruptions in meal benefits for low-income students and avoid student debt resulting from unpaid meal charges.

SP51-2016
08/05/2016
Resource | Policy Memos | FNS-GD-2016-0046 Unpaid Meal Charges: Clarification on Collection of Delinquent Meal Payments

There has been confusion about how unpaid meal charges must be handled when all collection efforts have been exhausted. To help address these situations, this memorandum clarifies the processes of designating delinquent debt that has been determined to be uncollectable as bad debt and obtaining assistance to offset bad debt losses.

SP47-2016
07/13/2016
Resource | Technical Assistance & Guidance Foster Care Letter

The Departments of Agriculture, Education and Health and Human Services issued a tri-agency letter outlining the categorical eligibility of children and youth in foster care for free school meals.

12/08/2014
Page updated: October 14, 2021