The Community Eligibility Provision is a National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program meal service option that allows schools and school districts located in high poverty areas to offer breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students.
This tip sheet was designed for school foodservice professionals to provide an overview of Offer versus Serve guidance for lunch meal service.
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.
For the 2023-24 school year, many families will need to fill out an application to find out if they can get free or reduced price meals.
The Professional Standards Summary of Updates flyer provides an overview of the professional standards requirements which consist of hiring standards and annual training requirements for state directors of school nutrition programs, state director of distributing agencies, school nutrition program directors, managers, and staff.
This new rule establishes standards for milk, whole grains, and sodium for school years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 to give schools time to transition in the short term.
The tip sheet provides a list of suggested practices that program operators may adopt to assist with proper meal counting and claiming when meals are served in alternative locations.
To help schools deal with supply chain challenges brought on by the pandemic, USDA is providing up to: $1 billion in Supply Chain Assistance funds for schools to purchase food for their meal programs, $300 million for states to purchase USDA Foods to distribute to schools, and $200 million for cooperative agreements to purchase local foods for schools, focusing on historically underused producers.