FNS Documents & Resources

Policy Memorandum FD-085, Nonfat Dry Milk Processing is cancelled. The Commodity Credit Corporation no longer has nonfat dry milk available for donation as a bulk commodity for reprocessing and all inventory of this product has been depleted.

In this Dec. 18, 2014, webinar, White House Champions of Change chefs Carlin Breinig, Cyndie Story, and Garrett Berdan share culinary techniques and work simplification methods aimed at producing quality foods in quantity batches. USDA Foods highlighted in the presentation include flavorsome fruits, vibrant vegetables and legumes, and mealtime meats, cheeses, and grains.

Recently, we have received several questions about the use of funds from the nonprofit school food service account to cover expenditures related to farm to school activities and school gardens. The questions and answers below address specific scenarios that school food authorities may be dealing with when considering the allowability of such costs.

During this webinar, Maggie Gosselin from USDA's Farm to School Program will discuss the different ways schools may choose to use a forward contract when purchasing local foods. We'll also hear from Megan Kemple, a practitioner in Oregon, who has successfully used forward contracts to buy local products.

During the last webinar in the twelve-part series, recorded on June 26, 2014, the USDA Farm to School Program offers a speedy recap of the variety of ways districts can purchase local foods, and talks through an example of how one district is tying it all together with a comprehensive local purchasing program. Deborah Kane, the National Director of USDA's Farm to School Program, wraps up the webinar by showing us how local procurement fits into the larger farm to school picture and shares several resources that are available to help you meet your local purchasing goals.

USDA offers a variety of user- and kid-friendly whole grain-rich foods. We continually review and work to improve our whole-grain products to ensure they help school nutrition programs meet the updated meal requirements, perform well, and are acceptable to children. 

This manual was developed to provide an overview of the recall process for USDA Foods with a focus on school meals programs.

The purpose of this memorandum is to inform processors of minimum inventory protection requirements effective beginning in School Year 2014-2015.

This memorandum clarifies how school food authorities may use funds provided under Sections 4 and 11 or 19 of the National School Lunch Act to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables from DoD Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program vendors.

In this webinar, the first of the series, Christina Conell and Maggie Gosselin from USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, covered basic procurement fundamentals relevant to the federal child nutrition programs. Topics include informal and formal procurement methods and maintaining competition.