School food authorities (SFAs) participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs are required to verify income for a small percentage of households approved for free or reduced price meals each school year. However, getting households to respond to verification requests can be challenging for SFA staff. If households do not respond, they lose their benefits regardless of their actual eligibility.

FNS is pleased to announce the release of the fiscal year 2019 request for applications to invite state agencies that administer the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs to apply for FY 2019 Administrative Review and Training Grants.

The goal of the school meal programs is to provide nutritious meals to children during the school day. Children may receive breakfast and lunch at no cost to them if they are categorically eligible for free meals or if they qualify for free meals based on federal poverty guidelines. Sometimes, however, children who do not qualify based on these standards would like a breakfast or lunch, but do not have money in their account or in-hand to cover the cost of the meal at the time of the meal service.

The SNAP E&T pilot projects give Congress, USDA, and states the opportunity to test innovative strategies and approaches that connect low-income households to good paying jobs and thereby reduce their reliance on public assistance.

The biennial WIC Participant and Program Characteristics Report describes a census of all participants in WIC. The most recent report (PC 2016) reflects state management information systems data from April 2016, and this Food Package Report is a supplemental analysis of that data. While PC 2016 summarizes participant characteristics, this report summarizes the food packages, or prescriptions, that state agencies issued to these participants.

This report supplements FNS administrative data on food package costs by estimating the average monthly food costs for each WIC participant category and food package type. It also estimates total pre- and post-rebate dollars spent on 17 major categories of WIC-eligible foods in FY 2014. This report is an update to the previous WIC Food Package Cost Report for FY 2010.

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide guidance for state agencies and program operators on the status of nationwide waivers of statutory and regulatory requirements in the Summer Food Service Program.

This rule would exempt for-profit centers from monthly verification if they annually demonstrate that at least 50 percent of children served are eligible for free and reduced-price meals or benefits under title XX of the Social Security Act, or at least 50 percent of adult participants are eligible for benefits under title XIX or title XX of the Social Security Act.

The WIC Post-Implementation Review Tool consists of two parts: the review tool itself and a functional area spreadsheet.  

The Operating Rules and Technical Implementation Guide are technical resources for use by all state agencies, authorized WIC vendors and EBT industry stakeholders to apply in their EBT implementation projects for consistency in WIC EBT online purchase messages and file handling processes utilized by both smart card/offline and magstrip/online WIC EBT systems.