We regularly collect information about the school meal programs and how they operate from the people who know best – the state agencies that oversee the programs in each state and territory and the school food authorities that manage the programs locally in one or more schools.
Under the leadership of Secretary Brooke Rollins, USDA is prioritizing the clarification of statutory, regulatory, and administrative requirements of the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.
This data collection fulfills states' reporting requirements and describes trends in program participation during the COVID-19 pandemic from July 2021 through September 2022. It is part of an ongoing study series examining child nutrition program operations, repurposed to collect waiver usage and trends in program participation and operations during the pandemic.
This tip sheet was designed for school foodservice professionals to provide an overview of Offer versus Serve guidance for breakfast meal service.
Featured here is USDA’s Web-Based Prototype Application for Free and Reduced Price School Meals, along with accompanying guidance materials and resources.
Offer versus Serve is a provision in the NSLP and School Breakfast Program that allows students to decline some of the food offered. The goals of OVS are to reduce food waste in the school meals programs while permitting students to decline foods they do not intend to eat.
It has come to our attention that there may be some confusion concerning fluid milk, and how it is offered in reimbursable lunches. Under all menu planning approaches, fluid milk is a separate food component/menu item.
PL 109-163 made the Department of Defense’s Family Subsistence Supplemental Allowance permanently available.
This memorandum provides guidance to state administrators in making household eligibility determinations in all nutrition assistance programs administered by FNS.