This final rule with comment period expands fluid milk options by allowing schools and child and adult care providers participating in child nutrition programs to offer whole and reduced-fat milk to participants two years and older.
Healthy school meals are a critical part of the school environment – like teachers, classrooms, books, and computers – and set kids up for success. These resources can help school breakfast program operators plan nutritious meals that can help improve a child’s health, growth, development, and educational outcomes.
Meal pattern calculations for short and long weeks. This applies to schools who regularly operate on a shorter or longer weekly cycle.
The CACFP Halftime: Thirty on Thursdays webinar series is a set of interactive, skills-building webinars that focus on hot topics related to the updated Child and Adult Care Food Program meal patterns.
On April 25, 2024, FNS published the final rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent With the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. While most provisions in the 2024 final rule focus on the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, this rule also includes limited updates to the Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program to better align child nutrition programs requirements. These updates represent continued progress toward supporting the nutritional quality of meals offered through the CNPs and meeting cultural food preferences of program participants.
On April 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) published the final rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent With the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The 2024 final rule included an optional provision that continues to allow the substitution of vegetables for fruits at breakfast and provides schools with greater menu planning flexibility at breakfast as compared to the previous regulations. This memorandum provides updated guidance on the substitution of vegetables for fruits in the School Breakfast Program.
On April 25, 2024, FNS published the final rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent With the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The rule finalized practical, science-based, long-term school nutrition requirements based on the goals of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025, extensive partner input, and lessons learned from prior rulemakings. This memorandum updates and clarifies current guidance for fluid milk requirements in school meal programs following publication of the 2024 final rule.
The CACFP Halftime: Thirty on Thursdays webinar series is a set of interactive, skills-building webinars that focus on hot topics related to the updated Child and Adult Care Food Program meal patterns.
National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program sodium limits and timeline
Meal pattern chart for the School Breakfast Program