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WIC provides vital nutrition support to nearly 7 million women and children. As part of our commitment to “Do right and feed everyone,” USDA hosted a round table meeting today with state WIC directors, program administrators and participants from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia to discuss program access and client services.

Secretary Sonny Perdue today announced a plan to ensure that low-income Americans have access to the nutrition they need. The plan provides full benefits for SNAP participants for the month of February.

FNCS Acting Deputy Under Secretary Brandon Lipps today highlighted the accomplishments of USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service in 2018, from common-sense flexibilities for school meal providers to the agency’s vigorous response to provide food to the victims of coast-to-coast natural disasters.

Secretary Sonny Perdue today applauded the accomplishments made by USDA over the past year. USDA has continued enacting President Trump’s goals of regulatory reform, streamlining government, and refocusing USDA to be customer oriented.

Secretary Sonny Perdue today empowered local schools with additional options to serve healthy and appealing meals. A final rule on school meal flexibilities, to be published later this month in the Federal Register, increases local flexibility in implementing school nutrition standards for milk, whole grains, and sodium. Secretary Perdue said the final rule will deliver on USDA's promise, made in a May 2017 proclamation, to develop forward-thinking strategies that ensure school nutrition standards are both healthful and practical.

To provide relief from the impacts of Hurricane Michael, FNS will allow participants in the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in 23 Georgia counties to buy hot foods with their benefits through Nov. 17, 2018.

FNS today announced a $2-million cooperative agreement with the Johns Hopkins University to conduct an in-depth, practicable evaluation of local agencies’ strategies to improve services provided by the WIC program.

Secretary Sonny Perdue yesterday hosted a roundtable with local school officials to learn more about how USDA can best assist and enable their efforts to serve nutritious meals to our nation’s children.

The state of North Carolina will be able to better serve participants through WIC in the wake of Hurricane Florence, thanks to operational flexibilities approved for their use by USDA) The state will be able to issue benefits remotely and waive some nutrition education requirements in places where offices are closed, as well as replace September food benefits that were damaged or lost during the hurricane.

USDA today announced the projects selected to receive the its annual farm to school grants designed to increase the amount of local foods served in schools. Sixty-five projects were chosen nationwide.

Secretary Sonny Perdue today proclaimed Aug. 1-7 as National WIC Breastfeeding Week. Each year, National WIC Breastfeeding Week is held in conjunction with World Breastfeeding Week during the first week of August to promote and support breastfeeding as the best source of nutrition for a baby’s first year of life. 

FNS today announced $5.2 million in grant awards to bring nutritious, local foods into schools and create new economic opportunities for farmers. The grants will impact over 6,000 schools and 2.8 million students nationwide.

As part of Agriculture Secretary Perdue’s strategic goal of ensuring that our programs are delivered efficiently, effectively and with integrity, FNS announced an enhanced focus on program integrity today, that will include renewed attention on transparency, payment accuracy, fraud and waste prevention, and improved quality control.

Deputy Secretary Steve Censky today announced two new efforts to provide states and school districts with additional flexibility and support to operate more efficient school meal programs. Censky made the announcement during a speech at the School Nutrition Association Legislative Action Conference.

FNS today announced $1.1 million in grants to four Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children state agencies in Arizona, Arkansas, South Dakota and Texas. 

USDA today announced a public invitation to submit ideas on food crediting, the system that defines how each food item fits into a meal for the National School Lunch Program and other federal child nutrition programs. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today provided local food service professionals the flexibility they need to serve wholesome, nutritious, and tasty meals in schools across the nation. The new School Meal Flexibility Rule, published today, makes targeted changes to standards for meals provided under USDA’s National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, and asks customers to share their thoughts on those changes with the Department.

Students in Georgia schools affected by Hurricane Irma will be provided free meals through the end of September, USDA announced today, along with additional flexibilities in federal child nutrition programs in Georgia and Florida aimed at making it easy for children to be fed.