As part of Secretary Rollins’ commitment to support American beef and create healthy outcomes for American children, the Farm to School Program is committed to working with CNP operators to help them source and serve local in program meals.
In this letter, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service urges state agencies to strengthen program integrity in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) by implementing robust oversight, training, and monitoring measures to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse.
In this program guidance, Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke L. Rollins, strongly encourages child nutrition program operators to familiarize themselves with the key recommendations and consider how the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 can be incorporated into program meals and snacks to promote healthy outcomes and healthy families.
This memorandum provides Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) agencies information on program oversight and expectations for the 2026 plans for operations and management (POM) and program implementation.
As a reminder, meals and snacks offered through the child nutrition programs may be claimed for federal reimbursement if they meet the federal nutrition requirements and other federal regulations. State agencies may not withhold federal reimbursement for meals that meet the federal requirements, even if additional state requirements are not met. However, if a state provides an additional reimbursement above the federal reimbursement, they may withhold the state reimbursement.
This memorandum provides notice to child nutrition program operators regarding the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (the 2025 Appropriations Act), March 15, 2025. This applies to state agencies administering, and local organizations operating, the USDA FNS child nutrition programs.
The purpose of this memorandum is to remind schools, sponsors, and institutions participating in any USDA Child Nutrition Program, including the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, Special Milk Program for Children , Child and Adult Care Food Program, Summer Food Service Program, and the Seamless Summer Option , of the many ways they can purchase local foods to serve in program meals.
This memorandum shares a letter from the United States Department of Education to Chief State School Officers regarding the applicability of FERPA to the disclosure of personally identifiable information for students' education records to facilitate the automatic enrollment of eligible children in the Summer EBT Program.
This memorandum provides additional clarification on questions received from state agencies and program stakeholders. It also includes guidance on integrity measures for non-congregate meal service operations.
On April 25, 2024, FNS published the final rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent With the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans that included minor updates to CACFP and SFSP to better align child nutrition program requirements. These updates represent continued progress toward supporting the nutritional quality of school meals, strengthening the CNPs, and advancing USDA’s commitment to nutrition security.