FNS Documents & Resources

In 2009, Congress authorized and funded pilot projects to test approaches to facilitate access to SNAP among two underserved populations: the elderly and the working poor. The Michigan and Pennsylvania pilots successfully increased access to SNAP among the elderly. No significant impacts on access were found in the other four states.

The USDA Farm to School Program hosted a 12-part webinar series to showcase the variety of ways school districts can purchase local foods. The series starts with an introduction to basic procurement principles, and then walks participants through strategies and tactics for buying local foods. This is the 7th webinar in the series.

This Congressional report summarizes the implementation and evaluation of two approaches tested in the summers of 2011 through 2013. 

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act directed USDA to study the extent to which school food authorities  participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs pay indirect costs to local education agencies. It specifically requested an assessment of the methodologies used to establish indirect costs, the types and amounts of indirect costs that are charged and not charged to the school foodservice account, and the types and amounts of indirect costs recovered by LEAs.

SNAP is designed to reduce food insecurity – reduced food intake or disrupted eating patterns in a household due to lack of money or other resources – but data quantifying this effect is limited. The objectives of this study were to: Assess how food security and food expenditures vary with SNAP participation.

This report offers updated estimates of the number of people eligible for WIC benefits in 2011, including (1) estimates by participant category (including children by single year of age) and coverage rates; (2) updated estimates in U.S. territories; and (3) confidence intervals. The national estimates presented in this report are based on a methodology developed in 2003 by the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council (CNSTAT).

The information in this first year study (school year 2011-12) will provide a baseline for observing the improvements resulting from the implementation of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

This report is meant to be the first systematic study of the roles different organizations play in designing and implementing SNAP based incentive programs, how they choose markets for their programs, and how they evaluate success of their programs.

In this webinar, the fourth in the series, Christina Conell from USDA's Food and Nutrition Service discusses how schools can purchase local products using the informal method. It can be as easy as schools contacting three (or more!) local producers for price quotes. This session showcases stories and tips from Union Public Schools in Oklahoma and Kalispell Public Schools in Montana.

Under the Community Eligibility Provision, schools do not collect or process meal applications for free and reduced-price meals served in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. Schools must serve all meals at no cost with any costs in excess of the federal reimbursement paid from non-federal sources.