The purpose of this memorandum is to clarify program requirements for the retention of records relating to institutions, responsible principals or individuals, and family day care homes that have been placed on the CACFP National Disqualified List.
We have received numerous inquiries in the past several weeks concerning a document produced by the Harrison Institute for Public Law at Georgetown University addressing the purchase of products from local farmers. The document expresses the view that Congress, as part of the 2002 Farm Bill, expressed clear support for geographic preferences in purchases made for school food service programs.
FNS is aware that there is a growing interest among school food authorities on the use of vending machines in the school meals programs. The following material is intended to provide interim guidance for SFAs that are considering whether a meal vending machine could be successfully incorporated into their NSLP and SBP.
This policy memo provides clarification of several program requirements regarding certification and monthly food benefits issuance cycles and reporting monthly participation on the WIC Financial Management and Participation Report (FNS-798).
This policy encourages state to comply with the application and notice requirements on the paper forms that an applicant can download.
This is to advise you that we are revising conditions associated with waivers of 7 CFR 273.10(f)(4) which would allow state agencies to shorten the certification periods of food stamp households
This is to advise you that we are expanding our criteria for the approval of waivers of the face-to-face interview at both initial and recertification. We also wish to note that since state agencies already may waive the face-to-face interview on an individual case basis based on a finding of hardship, we are now categorizing these waivers as waivers of the requirement that state agencies document hardship prior to utilizing alternatives to the face-to-face interview.
Attached is a Q&A fact sheet that answers questions and provides further guidance on the new racial/ethnic data collection and the new FNS-101 reporting. The July 31, 2006, memorandum offers further policy guidance on this regulation.
Local educational agencies must verify applications in accordance with the procedures set forth in the above-cited memorandum. The above change will affect the reporting for Item 6 on the FNS-742, School Food Authority Verification Summary Report.
FSP legislative and regulatory provisions do not, either directly or indirectly, address the treatment of gift cards for program purposes. While these rules can potentially be interpreted to count gift cards as a resource, we believe this would be inadvisable since attempts to verify the existence and value of the cards during the certification process would be extremely difficult, problematic and subject to error.