We have studied school meal program operations for a long time. You can access published reports that go back to school year 1988-89. Each study in this series focuses on topics that are important to program operations at the time. Sometimes the studies also collect information about other child nutrition programs, like the Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program.
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.
This request for approval of information collection is necessary to obtain input into the development of nutrition education interventions for population groups served by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. FNS also uses this collection to obtain input that can be used to develop and assess grants.
The studies encompassed under this information collection will collect data from school food authorities administering the child nutrition programs, including information on emerging and ongoing challenges, their impacts on operations and student participation, and strategies SFAs are undertaking to address challenges they face.
On July 4, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 (OBBB). The law contains several provisions that affect our programs.
This notice announces the national average value of donated foods or, where applicable, cash in lieu of donated foods, to be provided in school year 2026 (July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026) for each lunch served by schools participating in the National School Lunch Program, and for each lunch and supper served by institutions participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
This collection is: (1) a revision of the currently approved collections for the reporting and recordkeeping burdens associated with the Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) regulations and with the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) regulations; and (2) a consolidation of the SFMNP and WIC FMNP reporting and recordkeeping burdens into a single information collection to more accurately reflect consolidated program operations.
This notice announces the annual adjustments to the national average payments, the amount of money the federal government provides states for lunches, afterschool snacks, and breakfasts served to children participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs; to the maximum reimbursement rates, the maximum per lunch rate from federal funds that a state can provide a school food authority for lunches served to children participating in the National School Lunch Program; and to the rate of reimbursement for a half-pint of milk served to non-needy children in a school or institution that participates in the Special Milk Program for Children.
This notice announces the annual adjustments to the national average payment rates for meals and snacks served in child care centers, outside-school-hours care centers, at-risk afterschool care centers, and adult day care centers; the food service payment rates for meals and snacks served in day care homes; and the administrative reimbursement rates for sponsoring organizations of day care homes, to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index.
This notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection for the WIC Tribal Organizations and U.S. Territories Study. This is a new information collection request.