FNS Documents & Resources

The purpose of this memorandum is to strongly encourage local educational agencies to accept eligibility determinations from a transferring student’s former LEA to minimize disruptions in meal benefits for low-income students and avoid student debt resulting from unpaid meal charges.

This notice announces the annual adjustments to the national average payment rates for meals and snacks served in child care centers, outside-school-hours care centers, at-risk afterschool care centers, and adult day care centers; the food service payment rates for meals and snacks served in day care homes; and the administrative reimbursement rates for sponsoring organizations of day care homes, to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index.

 This Notice announces the annual adjustments to the “national average payments,” the amount of money the federal government provides states for lunches, afterschool snacks and breakfasts served to children participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs; to the “maximum reimbursement rates,” the maximum per lunch rate from federal funds that a state can provide a school food authority for lunches served to children participating in the National School Lunch Program; and to the rate of reimbursement for a half-pint of milk served to non-needy children in a school or institution which participates in the Special Milk Program for Children.

This memorandum provides additional implementation guidance regarding the final rule titled the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Review of Major Changes in Program Design and Management Evaluations (“Major Changes Rule”) published in the Federal Register on Jan. 19, 2016.

There has been confusion about how unpaid meal charges must be handled when all collection efforts have been exhausted. To help address these situations, this memorandum clarifies the processes of designating delinquent debt that has been determined to be uncollectable as bad debt and obtaining assistance to offset bad debt losses.

The purpose of this memorandum is to address the need for school food authorities participating in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program to institute and clearly communicate a meal charge policy, which would include, if applicable, the availability of alternate meals.

The final rule entitled SNAP: Review of Major Changes in Program Design and Management Evaluation Systems was published on Jan. 19, 2016. The Office of Management and Budget cleared the associated information collection requirements on March 10, 2016. This document announces approval of the ICR.