Summary
The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (NSLA) (42 USC 1751 et seq.) authorizes the Child and Adult Care Program (CACFP). Section 10 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (CNA) (PL 111-296) requires the Secretary of Agriculture to prescribe such regulations as deemed necessary to carry out the child nutrition programs authorized under the NSLA and the CNA. The CACFP provides reimbursements for nutritious meals and snacks to eligible children and adults who are enrolled for care at participating childcare centers, day care homes, and adult care centers, in addition to children and adolescents participating in afterschool care programs. FNS published a final rule, “Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans ” (RIN 0584-AE88) in the Federal Register on April 25, 2024 (89 FR 31962) which introduces a new recordkeeping requirement for the CACFP. Under the CACFP, FNS is required to develop nutrition requirements that are consistent with the goals of the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans. In addition, institutions and facilities are required by regulation to comply with the meal requirements. This rulemaking finalizes long-term school, institution, and facility nutrition requirements based on the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans and feedback from child nutrition program partners. The final rule allows CACFP institutions and facilities that serve primarily American Indian or Alaska Native children to serve vegetables to meet the grains requirements. FNS is also accounting for start-up costs of $305,000 for the CACFP operators associated with menu changes because of this final rule.
FNS is publishing a 30-Day Notice for this final rule submission because the agency changed how the requirement and burden change were submitted for approval in the final rule from what was used in the proposed rule. Due to uncertain timing of the rules in conjunction with the renewal of OMB Control Number 0584-0006, FNS decided to request a new OMB control number for the collections related to the rule and later merge them into the existing information collections that are related to these requirements. By the time of the final rule, however, OMB Control Number 0584-0006 was renewed, so FNS decided to switch to revisions of the existing collections, rather than requesting a new OMB control number. OMB reviewed the proposed submission as “filed with comment” on March 21, 2023, and assigned the preliminary OMB Control Number 0584-0679 to the collection. However, because FNS decided to submit revisions to the existing information collections, this preliminary OMB control number was not used for the final rule submission.
Request for Comments
Comments regarding this information collection received by Sept. 26, 2024 will be considered. Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of this notice on the following website https://www.reginfo.gov/public/.
Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under 30-day Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function. An agency may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information unless the collection of information displays a currently valid OMB control number and the agency informs potential persons who are to respond to the collection of information that such persons are not required to respond to the collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.
Need and Use of the Information
The revisions to this ongoing information collection are due to the final rule, “Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans”, which amends program regulations and introduces new recordkeeping requirements into this collection. CACFP program operators at institutions and facilities must maintain documentation required by this rule. This final rule contains information requirements that are required to obtain or retain a benefit. The CACFP institutions and facilities are required to maintain documentation to show that they are eligible, when they are serving primarily American Indian or Alaska Native children, to implement the menu planning options to serve vegetables to meet the grains requirement. Maintaining these records ensures program integrity. FNS uses this information to ensure compliance with the final rule requirements.