We have studied school meal program operations for a long time. You can access published reports that go back to school year 1988-89. Each study in this series focuses on topics that are important to program operations at the time. Sometimes the studies also collect information about other child nutrition programs, like the Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program.
We regularly collect information about the school meal programs and how they operate from the people who know best – the state agencies that oversee the programs in each state and territory and the school food authorities that manage the programs locally in one or more schools.
This collection is a revision of a currently approved collection for awarding local agencies for excellence in WIC breastfeeding services and support. The Child Nutrition Act of 1966 requires that the Department of Agriculture establish a program to recognize WIC local agencies and clinics that demonstrate exemplary breastfeeding promotion and support activities.
As part of Secretary Rollins’ commitment to support American beef and create healthy outcomes for American children, the Farm to School Program is committed to working with CNP operators to help them source and serve local in program meals.
In this program guidance, Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke L. Rollins, strongly encourages child nutrition program operators to familiarize themselves with the key recommendations and consider how the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 can be incorporated into program meals and snacks to promote healthy outcomes and healthy families.
The Child Nutrition Act requires USDA to annually compile and publish breastfeeding performance measurements. We use this data to monitor breastfeeding trends and to help identify exemplary performance of WIC state and local agencies in breastfeeding and make awards to such agencies.
President Donald J. Trump signed into law the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025. This memorandum and the attachment provide guidance on implementation of the updated fluid milk requirements for school lunch as required by the new law.
On Dec. 14, 2023, we published a final rule that went into effect on Feb. 12, 2024. In reviewing the resulting changes to the Code of Federal Regulations, we found that the final rule inadvertently omitted provisions from the CFR and contained several non-substantive errors. This document corrects those errors in the WIC regulations.
On Nov. 12, 2025, President Trump signed the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026 into law. Section 787 of the Act directs USDA to update the maximum monthly allowance of fluid milk for certain food packages provided in the WIC program.
FDA and USDA (we) are extending the comment period for the notice that appeared in the Federal Register of July 25, 2025. In the notice, we requested data and information to help develop a uniform definition of ultra-processed foods. In response to requests for an extension, we are extending the comment period until Oct. 23, 2025, to allow interested persons additional time to submit comments.