Skip to main content
Resource | Policy Best Practices to Minimize Food Waste

This TEFAP program guidance memorandum implements requirements under the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 and provides guidance to TEFAP state agencies on best practices to minimize food waste of privately donated foods provided to TEFAP state agencies and eligible recipient agencies. 

08/16/2019
Resource | FAQs/Q&As Farm to School - Food Safety FAQs
02/27/2019
Resource | Guidance Documents 2017 Edition of Accommodating Children with Disabilities in the School Meal Programs

Attached is the 2017 Edition of Accommodating Children with Disabilities in the School Meal Programs. This guide provides guidance on the requirement for school food authorities to ensure equal access to Program benefits for children with disabilities, which includes providing special meals to children with a disability that restricts their diet.

07/25/2017
Resource | Policy Responding to Food Recall Procedures for Recalls of USDA Foods

This general USDA Foods guidance manual was developed to provide an overview of the recall process for USDA Foods with a focus on school meals programs.

05/30/2014
Resource | Guidance Documents The Food Allergy Book

The Food Allergy Book: What School Employees Need to Know was written by NEA Healthy Futures, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the National Education Association. 

08/21/2013
Resource | Policy Memos Enhancing the School Food Safety Program FAQs

This memorandum and its attachment supersede SP-37-2011, Child Nutrition 2010: Enhancing the School Food Safety Program. Attached are questions and answers regarding the school food safety requirements for schools participating in FNS child nutrition programs.

04/26/2013
Resource | Policy Memos Health and Safety Standards for Outside-School-Hours Care Centers and At-Risk Afterschool Care Centers

The purpose of this memorandum is to assist Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) state agencies in determining applicable health and safety standards for outside-school-hours care centers (OSHCC) and at-risk afterschool care centers and documenting compliance with those standards, if applicable.

05/01/2012
Resource | Policy Memos Food Safety Inspections in Service-Only Sites Participating in the School Meals Programs

This memorandum satisfies GAO’s recommendations for the Food and Nutrition Service to issue more specific guidance to states and school districts regarding the applicability of the food safety inspections requirement in schools that do not prepare food, such as those that only serve pre-packaged meals or meals delivered from a central preparation location (referred to in this memorandum as service-only sites). 

08/03/2011
Resource | Policy Memos Responsibility to Request Food Safety Inspections

A number of schools nationwide are still having difficulty obtaining the two food safety inspections required by the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004. Although FNS realizes that many of the difficulties schools face are beyond their control, we would like to stress that local program operators are responsible for requesting the food safety inspections from the public health department and documenting their efforts.

09/19/2008
Resource | Policy Memos Food Safety Inspections in Non-Traditional School Settings

This memo clarifies how the food safety inspection requirement is to be carried out by program operators on military bases, Indian reservations and Residential Child Care Institutions (RCCIs).

12/19/2007
Page updated: October 14, 2021