This rulemaking finalizes long-term school nutrition requirements based on the goals of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025, robust stakeholder input, and lessons learned from prior rulemakings.
This final rule - Child Nutrition Programs: Revisions to Meal Patterns Consistent with the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans - is the next step in continuing the science-based improvement of school meals and advancing USDA’s commitment to nutrition security.
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.
The goal of the dashboard is to provide national and state level visualization of meals served, participation, and funding data for the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Child and Adult Care Food Program, and Summer Food Service Program. The dashboard can be used by federal, state, and local organizations to assess trends in child nutrition program activity.
The Operational Challenges in Child Nutrition Programs surveys, are designed to collect timely data on emerging school food service operational challenges, including but not limited to supply chain disruptions, food costs, and labor shortages, and/or related issues.
USDA Foods in Schools product information sheets with description and WBSCM ID for vegetables.
USDA Foods product information sheets containing USDA Foods description and WBSCM ID for fruits.
USDA Foods in Schools Foods product information sheets containing USDA Foods description and WBSCM ID for meat/meat alternates.
The Menu Planner for School Meals has been revised to reflect the Child Nutrition Programs: Transitional Standards for Milk, Whole Grains, and Sodium Final Rule that was published in February 2022.