FNS Documents & Resources

This memorandum states visual observation and identification by Child and Adult Food Care Program institutions and facilities and Summer Food Service Program sponsors is no longer an allowable practice for program operators to use during the collection of race or ethnicity data.  USDA will update CACFP and SFSP policy guidance.

On Dec. 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021. This Act excludes federal pandemic unemployment compensation payments authorized under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act from consideration as income for the purposes of determining FDPIR eligibility. 

FNS has received questions about participant information sharing between WIC clinics and private health care providers. This memorandum sets forth the applicable requirements in WIC regulations that allow participant information to be shared.

This memorandum provides revised policy guidance on certification periods pertaining to zero income households in FDPIR. FNS Handbook 501 provides that households who report zero income month after month must be asked as to how they sustain themselves and other household members.

The purpose of this memorandum is to implement a provision affecting mandatory direct certification for children in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program households.

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act authorizes FNS to award $9,000,000 in FY 2006 to be used to assist states in implementing mandatory direct certification and other provisions related to certification and verification of students’ eligibility to receive free and reduced price meal benefits in the school nutrition programs.

The purpose of this policy memorandum is to highlight and strengthen national program policy regarding integrity in the WIC certification process through existing regulatory requirements as well as through new legislative requirements mandated by PL 105-336.