To help navigate the coming year, FNS is clarifying existing flexibilities available to assist state agencies and local program operators in meeting the unique needs of their communities.
FY 2021 Team Nutrition Training Grants awarded
Recipients of FY 2017 Team Nutrition Training Grants.
This guidance describes $1 billion being provided by FNS to enhance local school districts’ ability to purchase foods for school meals by offering resources needed to address supply chain challenges directly to schools and school districts.
To help schools deal with supply chain challenges brought on by the pandemic, USDA is providing up to: $1 billion in Supply Chain Assistance funds for schools to purchase food for their meal programs, $300 million for states to purchase USDA Foods to distribute to schools, and $200 million for cooperative agreements to purchase local foods for schools, focusing on historically underused producers.
The previous version of this memorandum contained incorrect references to state agencies throughout. FNS is correcting this memorandum to remove the incorrect references and so that it more clearly and accurately reflects the federal regulations. This memorandum notifies state agencies and child nutrition program operators of the changes made by OMB to the federal informal procurement method, micro-purchases and the micro-purchase threshold.
As long as there is a national Public Health Emergency in place and the state has a state-level emergency declaration in place, states may opt to continue to provide monthly emergency allotments to their caseload. States have the option to provide a one-month EA issuance phase-out following the end of their state emergency declaration.
When the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency began in March 2020, FNS quickly responded by allowing state agencies to suspend requirements to conduct face-to-face interviews for QC active reviews. This flexibility was initially granted until Sept. 30, 2020, and then extended through Dec. 31, 2020. On April 30, 2021, FNS issued a memo that SNAP QC will resume nationwide starting July 2021, but provided state agencies with a blanket waiver of the QC face-to-face interview through Dec. 31, 2021.
The following report addresses actions taken by FNS to comply with the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021 which directed USDA to establish a Task Force to study measures to streamline the redemption of WIC benefits in a manner that promotes convenience, safety, and equitable access to WIC supplemental foods for participants in the WIC program.
A summary of the procedures related to requesting a no-cost extension for a Farm to School Grant.