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 purpose of this memorandum is to remind schools, sponsors, and institutions participating in any USDA Child Nutrition Program, including the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, Special Milk Program for Children , Child and Adult Care Food Program, Summer Food Service Program, and the Seamless Summer Option , of the many ways they can purchase local foods to serve in program meals.
On April 25, 2024, FNS published the final rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent With the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. While most provisions in the 2024 final rule focus on the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, this rule also includes limited updates to the Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program to better align child nutrition programs requirements. These updates represent continued progress toward supporting the nutritional quality of meals offered through the CNPs and meeting cultural food preferences of program participants.
This memorandum provides updated guidance on crediting tofu and soy yogurt products in the Child and Adult Care Food Program and extends previous guidance on crediting tofu and soy yogurt products to the Summer Food Service Program, as well as to the infant meal pattern in the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
This memorandum and attachment provides guidance regarding the State Agency School Food Safety Inspections Report for the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program for SY 2022-23.
In April 2022, federal agencies transitioned from use of the DUNS number to the Unique Entity Identifier. Child Nutrition Program Operators are required to have the UEI to receive payments from state agencies who administer the child nutrition programs on behalf of the federal government. This memorandum provides answers to questions related to the transition.
This memorandum provides clarification on questions related to child nutrition programs use of emergency procurements due to supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19.
This memorandum provides guidance regarding continuation of the food safety inspections reporting requirement under the NSLP and SBP for fiscal year 2019.
This memorandum informs stakeholders on the progress made by FNS in updating the food crediting system for all child nutrition programs. This is a first step towards improving the crediting system to best address today’s evolving food and nutrition environment and meet the needs of those operating and benefiting from the CNPs.