The School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study was a comprehensive study of the school meal programs. This fact sheet provides an overview of the design and implementation of the SNMCS, including the research objectives, sample design, data collection approach, and response rates.
Stewardship of federal funds is a basic expectation of American taxpayers and is critical to the ongoing success of nutrition assistance programs. FNS continuously works to detect, prevent, and minimize errors and improper payments, as well as fraud, waste, or abuse. In this way, FNS preserves public trust, enhances partner relationships, and provides excellent customer service to program participants.
The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is a federally funded, State-administered program that reimburses providers who serve free, nutritious meals to children and teens in low-income areas when school is not in session.
The School Breakfast Program provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or no-cost breakfasts to children each school day in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. The SBP started in 1966 as a pilot project and was made a permanent entitlement program by Congress in 1975.
FNS issued eight child nutrition programs off-site monitoring fact sheets to assist states and sponsors in conducting off-site monitoring of child nutrition programs during the pandemic. These documents include a fact sheet that has background information on all programs, as well as separate facts sheets for state and local operators for each program.
USDA Foods in Schools Product Information Sheets containing USDA Foods description and WBSCM ID for other foods.
In January 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), responding to requests from local school food service professionals, will publish a proposed rule to provide flexibilities that will better enable schools to serve nutritious foods children will be eager to eat while also increasing program effeciency and integrity.
In January 2020, the USDA FNS will publish in the Federal Register a proposed rule entitled “Streamlining Program Requirements and Improving Integrity in the Summer Food Service Program” to improve program efficiency while allowing local operators to spend more time focused on serving children.
A resource for school meals program operators on the Buy American Provision. This provision safeguards the health and well-being of our Nation’s children and supports the U.S. economy, American farmers, and small and local agricultural businesses. The National School Lunch Act requires school food authorities (SFAs) to purchase, to the maximum extent practicable, domestic commodities or products.
The School Breakfast Program is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It began as a pilot project in 1966, and was made permanent in 1975. At the state level, the program is usually administered by state education agencies, which operate the program through agreements with local school food authorities in more than 78,000 schools and institutions.