FNS Documents & Resources

Broad-based categorical eligibility is a policy that makes most households categorically eligible for SNAP because they qualify for a non-cash TANF or state maintenance of effort funded benefit.

The average material prices are listed by school year and used by processors participating in the USDA Foods processing program.

In July 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) published a proposed rule entitled “Revision of Categorical Eligibility in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)." This action closes a loophole that allows states to make participants in certain programs “categorically eligible” to participate in SNAP.

USDA Foods further processing allows state distributing agencies (SDA) and recipient agencies (RA) such as school districts to contract with commercial food processors to convert raw and/or bulk USDA Foods into a variety of convenient, ready-to-use end products.