This memorandum provides revised guidance for school food authorities (SFAs) participating in the school meal programs regarding fees charged when families use electronic payment services to add money to school meal accounts. It also reminds SFAs that they must offer a free and accessible method for all families to add money to school meal accounts.
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.
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.
Attached to this memorandum, please find a revised edition of the Prototype Application for Free and Reduced Price School Meals, with an accompanying instructions document. These materials may be adapted for direct use by state and local agencies, or as a reference for designing an effective application packet that meets all statutory and regulatory requirements.
The purpose of this memorandum is to provide guidance regarding onsite and offsite strategies and options for oversight and monitoring of the school meal programs.
This general USDA Foods guidance explains that the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service will discontinue the requirement for vendors to use high security seals to secure USDA Foods deliveries as of July 1, 2023.
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.
School programs policy memo SP 14-2019 provides SY 2017-18 reporting guidance for the FNS-640 report. The FNS-640 form became available in FPRS on March 1, 2019. State agencies may use the attached instructions and business rules/edit check to begin and/or finalize implementation of processes for reporting and any system updates for School Year 2017-2018 reporting.
Attached is updated clarifying guidance for state agencies regarding the 60-day claim submission and 90-day reporting requirements for child nutrition programs which was released on April 25, 2018. This latest version includes edits to align with changes made in the SFSP Simplified Cost Accounting Final Rule published on June 1, 2018.
An interim final rule published on Nov. 30, 2017 provides child nutrition program operators targeted flexibilities for milk, whole grains, and sodium requirements for school year 2018-2019. This memorandum summarizes the flexibilities that will be effective July 1, 2018.