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Resource | Technical Assistance Guide to Successful Publication to the USDA Child Nutrition Database

This information is for manufacturers submitting food product information within GS1 Global Data Synchronization Network (GS1 GDSN®) for products to be included in the USDA Child Nutrition Database (CNDB).

06/20/2025
Resource | Technical Assistance Decision Tree: Industry Guide to Publishing K-12 Product Information to USDA Databases

This decision tree assists industry K-12 product manufacturers on how to  publish their product data to the Child Nutrition Database and the USDA Foods Database. 

02/12/2025
Resource | Guidance Documents Small Entity Compliance Guide

This guide informs small entities participating in child nutrition programs about the final rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent With the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and how to comply with it. This guide does not include any new requirements; it just summarizes existing guidance related to the final rule.

06/27/2024
Resource | Technical Assistance Updates to the School Nutrition Standards

This final rule - Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent With the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans - is the next step in continuing the science-based improvement of school meals.

04/24/2024
Resource | Policy Memos Child Nutrition Emergency Operational Costs Reimbursement Programs: Q&As #3

This memorandum applies to state agencies administering the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, and Child and Adult Care Food Program. This document details further instructions and administrative procedures for participation in the reimbursement program established in Sec. 722 of the Act, which makes funding available via state agencies to program operators for the purposes of covering emergency operating costs incurred during the public health emergency

08/11/2021
Resource | Technical Assistance FNS-101: School Breakfast Program

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.

03/04/2021
Resource | Policy Reducing School Meal Certification Error through Improved Online Application Design

This memorandum provides guidance to states, local operators, and their software vendors on strategies for leveraging the design flexibilities of online free and reduced price school meal applications to reduce household reporting mistakes and certification errors.

03/05/2018
Resource | Technical Assistance Implementing Your Program

This module includes a series of resources for all stages of the implementation process, from planning to evaluation.

09/20/2017
Resource | Policy Memos 2017 Edition of Questions and Answers for the National School Lunch Program’s Seamless Summer Option

This memorandum consolidates the recent policy changes in the NSLP,  SBP, and SFSP that affect the implementation of the Seamless Summer Option. This memorandum and its attachment supersede SP 37-2015, 2015 Edition of Questions and Answers for the National School Lunch Program’s Seamless Summer Option, May 22, 2015.

12/01/2016
Resource | Policy Meaningful Access for Persons with Limited English Proficiency in the School Meal Programs: Guidance and Q&As

This memorandum consolidates and supersedes previous LEP guidance and incorporates previously released USDA and FNS guidance. FNS is issuing this guidance in a Q&A format to provide responses to questions that FNS has received regarding communications with LEP individuals.

05/25/2016
Page updated: October 14, 2021