Section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act (CNA) of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773) authorizes the School Breakfast Program as a nutrition assistance program and authorizes payments to states to assist them to initiate, maintain or expand nonprofit breakfast programs in schools.
The provision requires that “Breakfasts served by schools participating in the School Breakfast Program under this section shall consist of a combination of foods and shall meet minimum nutritional requirements prescribed by the Secretary on the basis of tested nutritional research.”
The School Breakfast Program is administered and operated in accordance with the National School Lunch Act (NSLA). The program is administered at the state and local levels, including school district and school site levels, and the operations include the submission and approval of applications to participate in the program, execution of agreements, record maintenance, submission of claims, payment of claims, monitoring procedures, and providing technical assistance.
This collection is mandatory to administer and operate this program in accordance with the authorizing statutes. States, school food authorities (SFAs), and schools are required to keep accounts and records as may be necessary to enable FNS to determine whether the program is in compliance. SFAs collect breakfast counts from the schools so that they can submit claims and related information to the state agencies. The state agencies then report this information to FNS.
The state agencies, the SFAs, and the schools also maintain records related to the School Breakfast Program. FNS uses the information to monitor state agency and SFA compliance, determine the amount of funds to be reimbursed, evaluate and adjust program operations, and to monitor program funding and program trends.