We support nutrition assistance programs with educational resources to promote and improve produce safety practices in their operations.
This fact sheet outlines a number of additional resources for those seeking to directly purchase or raise food products for school nutrition programs.
"Food Safety Frequently Asked Questions: The Food Safety Modernization Act and its Impact on Farm to School Activities": This document includes common questions related to food safety when purchasing locally grown and raised food products directly from producers as well as food safety considerations for edible campus gardens.
Information about food safety issues in school gardens. Includes topics such as site selection, materials, and water use; chemical and fertilizer use; compost and manure use; growing and harvesting produce; using school garden produce in your school meals program and addressing community donations.
FNS advances food safety education and practices in federal nutrition assistance programs through research conducted by the Center for Food Safety in Child Nutrition Programs (the Center). To better understand food safety concerns associated with fresh produce and farm to school activities, the Center conducted a study.
FNS is committed to providing WIC participants with access to a variety of safe and healthy foods, including infant formula, and strongly encourages WIC state agencies to take expedient action to ensure that WIC participants can exchange recalled product on hand, and can use WIC benefits in their EBT balance or on paper WIC food instruments to purchase product that has not been recalled
This document addresses common questions regarding the impact of the Act on school gardens and other similar small producers commonly used as sources for local food.
This guide was developed to provide a framework for developing a school food defense plan. Four easy steps, along with tools, are outlined to create a viable plan.