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.
The final rule - Child Nutrition Programs: Revisions to Meal Patterns Consistent with the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans - is the next step in an ongoing effort toward healthier school meals that USDA and the broader school meals community have been partnering on for well over a decade. This table is a reference tool for stakeholders to visualize the proposed implementation timeline.
Meal pattern chart for the School Breakfast Program
Meal pattern chart for the National School Lunch Program
Meal pattern calculations for short and long weeks. This applies to schools who regularly operate on a shorter or longer weekly cycle.
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.
These materials were compiled to assist companies who are developing or revising certification of compliance/menu planning software for USDA to approve for use in certification of compliance with the National School Lunch Program meal pattern requirements.
This final rule updates the meal patterns and nutrition standards for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs to align them with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
The Food and Nutrition Service is issuing final regulations amending the meal pattern for infants less than 12 months of age in the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
The Food and Nutrition Service is issuing final regulations amending the meal pattern for infants less than 12 months of age in the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.