Final Rule: National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program Additional Menu Planning Approaches

The Healthy Meals for Children Act expanded the number of approaches that schools may use to plan menus under the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. One of the menu planning approaches specified in that law is the traditional meal pattern that was in effect in School Year 1994-95. This final rule also adds a method that allows schools to use “any reasonable approach” to plan menus. The various menu planning approaches now available allow schools greater flexibility in planning menus that both meet the nutrition requirements of the school lunch and breakfast programs and appeal to the nation's schoolchildren. We are also clarifying several state agency monitoring responsibilities associated with the implementation of the nutrition standards of the National School Lunch Act.