This memorandum responds to questions received from regional offices, state agencies and local educational agencies (LEAs) regarding applications for free and reduced price school meals that request the applicant to provide information that is not required for a student’s certification of eligibility for child nutrition programs.
This memorandum provides questions and answers relating to policy memorandum SP38 CACFP08 SFSP07-2009, Extending Categorical Eligibility to Additional Children in a Household, dated Aug. 27, 2009.
This is a reminder of the statutory and regulatory requirements for categorical eligibility for the Child Nutrition Programs based on receipt of benefits from each state’s Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program. The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act restricts categorical eligibility to those TANF programs with standards that are comparable to or more restrictive than those in effect on June 1, 1995.
This memorandum modifies the policy related to categorical eligibility for free meals or free milk for children who are members of a household receiving assistance under SNAP, the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations or the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Program.
We are providing guidance in a question and answer format to capture the questions we have already answered informally, as well as other questions we will be responding to for the first time.
We have received a request to allow states to consider Upward Bound sites to be categorically eligible to participate in the SFSP based on the eligibility criteria for the Upward Bound program.
This memorandum permits sponsors to consider children 18 years of age and younger who participate in the Job Training Partnership Act program as categorically eligible for the Summer Food Service Program.
This memorandum extends this categorical eligibility provision to the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, the Special Milk Program for Children, and closed enrolled sites in the Summer Food Service Program.