This memorandum responds to a number of recent questions and requests to provide clarifying guidance to state agencies and child nutrition program operators, including the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Child and Adult Care Food Program, and Summer Food Service Program, regarding the expectation and enforcement of ethical conduct by their employees engaged in procurement of program goods and service.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act directed USDA to study the extent to which school food authorities participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs pay indirect costs to local education agencies. It specifically requested an assessment of the methodologies used to establish indirect costs, the types and amounts of indirect costs that are charged and not charged to the school foodservice account, and the types and amounts of indirect costs recovered by LEAs.
This memorandum clarifies how school food authorities may use funds provided under Sections 4 and 11 or 19 of the National School Lunch Act to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables from DoD Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program vendors.
The purpose of this memorandum is to clarify for state and local operators of the school meal programs the permissible use of funds from the nonprofit school food service account to lower or eliminate reduced price student meal charges.
In an effort to simplify procurement requirements for SFSP sponsors, this memorandum links existing procurement and contract thresholds referenced in the program regulations to the federal small purchase threshold currently set at $150,000.
The primary purpose of the rule was to strengthen the requirements for adequate testing and pilot before rolling out a new management information system or major system changes. The rule also made changes to the SNAP regulations to provide clarifications and revisions since the last update which occurred in 1996.