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Resource | Policy Best Practices for Determining Proximity of Sites in the Summer Food Service Program

This memorandum provides information to assist state agencies in preventing approval of multiple sites offering meal services at the same time to the same population of children in the Summer Food Service Program. 

SFSP 15-2023
09/28/2023
Basic page Families/Caregivers
08/10/2023
Basic page Applying for Free and Reduced Price School Meals

USDA offers prototypes of school meal applications, as well as sample instructional documents intended to assist state and local officials in the design and distribution of their own application materials.

05/11/2023
Basic page Rural Designation

State agencies and sponsors may use this tool to determine if a proposed site may be designated as rural for purposes of SFSP and SSO.

12/22/2022
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 | Technical Assistance & Guidance Nutrition Standards for School Meals

This page contains regulations, policy memos, and other guidance materials relating to the nutrition standards for the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program.

03/11/2022
Resource | Technical Assistance Professional Standards

Professional Standards for school nutrition professionals is a key provision of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The final rule, published March 2, 2015, requires a minimum amount of annual training hours for all state directors of school nutrition programs, state director of distributing agencies, school nutrition program directors, managers, and staff.

09/08/2019
Resource | Toolkits Tools for Schools: Focusing on Smart Snacks

A number of tools and resources are available to help schools identify food items that meet Smart Snacks criteria. See the resources below for information about the Smart Snacks requirement, helpful tools, and ways to encourage children to make healthier snack choices that give them the nutrition they need to grow and learn.

08/22/2019
Resource | Technical Assistance & Guidance Demonstration Projects to End Childhood Hunger

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 added a new Section 23 on Childhood Hunger Research to the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act. This section provides substantial new mandatory funding to research the causes and consequences of childhood hunger and to test innovative strategies to end child hunger and food insecurity.

06/05/2019
Resource | Policy Memos | FNS-GD-2019-0004 Flexibility for the Administrative Review Cycle Requirement

In school year 2013-14, FNS introduced the unified administrative review and a 3-year review cycle. Since then, FNS has received feedback about the difficulties of the shorter review cycle, both for the state agencies conducting the reviews, and for school food authorities preparing for and responding to reviews.

SP12-2019
02/22/2019
Page updated: October 14, 2021