FNS Documents & Resources

Fruit and vegetable consumption is an important component of a balanced diet consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Food Guide Pyramid. FNS promotes the increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, in all forms – fresh, frozen, canned, dried and juices, through its nutrition assistance programs.

This report describes how the Direction Card system works; the process undertaken by ODJFS and its EBT vendor to design, develop, and test the system; the implementation process and experiences; and the cost of system design, development, and implementation. Volume 2 of this report compares the ongoing administrative costs of system operations and system levels of benefit loss and diversion with those of on-line EBT systems and the Dayton pilot.

This memorandum encourages those state agencies that have not already done so to consider seriously adopting provisions currently available to simplify operations and improve program access for households with earnings.

Please advise your state agencies that a January 2002 amendment to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act clarified the definition of homeless children and youth. Another provision of the statute requires each school district to designate a local educational agency liaison for homeless children and youths. 

The No Child Left Behind Act contains a number of changes that affect the Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers. This memo contains those changes that are pertinent to the child nutrition programs.

The Department announces adjusted income eligibility guidelines to be used by state agencies in determining the income eligibility of persons applying to participate in the WIC program. These income eligibility guidelines are to be used in conjunction with the WIC regulations.

This report fulfills a request to USDA from the Appropriations Committee Directives, FY 2002. As requested, this report compares the availability of fruits and vegetables in schools with and without salad bars using data from the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study, Part II, which were collected during the school year 1998-99. SNDA-II data enables us to examine the choice and variety of foods offered at salad bars, but not the quantity in a typical serving or the amount consumed.

This memorandum provides flexibility to at-risk afterschool care programs that serve both a snack and supper.

This report fulfills the request from Congress in the House Appropriations Committee Report (HR 107-116), which accompanied the Agriculture Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2002.

We have been asked to reconsider our decision to exclude closed enrolled sites in eligible areas and camps from participation in the Seamless Summer Feeding Waiver.