Updated School Meal Standards: working towards a common goal of healthy children and helping them reach their full potential.
School meals will continue to include fruits and vegetables, emphasize whole grains, and give kids the right balance of nutrients for healthy, tasty meals. For the first time, schools will focus on products with less added sugar, especially in school breakfast.
School nutrition professionals continue to make school meals the healthiest meals children eat in a day! To take school meals to the next level, USDA is updating the school nutrition standards after considering recommendations from the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans and listening to a diverse range of voices with experience in child nutrition and health.
This is the official list of the only tools authorized to certify schools as eligible for the additional performance-based reimbursement.
USDA is extending the public comment period on the proposed rule, “Child Nutrition Programs: Revisions to Meal Patterns Consistent With the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” to May 10, 2023.
This rulemaking proposes long-term school nutrition standards based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025, and feedback the USDA received from child nutrition program stakeholders during a robust stakeholder engagement campaign.
Comparison Chart: Current Standards vs. Proposed Standards
The CACFP Halftime: Thirty on Thursdays webinar series is a set of interactive, skills-building webinars that focus on hot topics related to the updated Child and Adult Care Food Program meal patterns. This webinar will focus on how CACFP operators can use a food’s ingredient list to identify whole grain-rich items for their menus, with a focus on how to treat flour blends.
La serie Medio tiempo del CACFP: treinta los jueves es un conjunto de seminarios web interactivos que desarrollan habilidades y se centran en temas de interés relacionados con los patrones de comidas actualizados del Programa de Alimentos para el Cuidado de Niños y Adultos (CACFP, por sus siglas en inglés). Este seminario web se enfoca en cómo los operadores del CACFP pueden usar la lista de ingredientes de un alimento para identificar alimentos ricos en grano integral para sus menús, incluyendo cómo tratar las mezclas de harinas.
This final rule updates the meal pattern requirements for the Child and Adult Care Food Program to better align them with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, as required by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.