We have studied school meal program operations for a long time. You can access published reports that go back to school year 1988-89. Each study in this series focuses on topics that are important to program operations at the time. Sometimes the studies also collect information about other child nutrition programs, like the Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program.
We regularly collect information about the school meal programs and how they operate from the people who know best – the state agencies that oversee the programs in each state and territory and the school food authorities that manage the programs locally in one or more schools.
This is a revision to a currently approved collection to prevent a lapse in OMB approval of data collection. This collection allows for Food Distribution Programs, such as the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), to run effectively.
This memorandum seeks to ensure that current Food and Nutrition Service guidance pertaining to federal civil rights and nondiscrimination obligations remains aligned with applicable laws, regulations, executive orders and directives relevant to the agency’s 16 nutrition assistance programs.
This memorandum transmits the 2026 income guidelines for state agencies and tribes in determining the eligibility of individuals applying to participate in CSFP.
Each state agency must post a list of all CSFP local agencies on a publicly available webpage.
Food distribution program data.
This final national caseload level ensures that resources are sufficient to provide full food packages to participants throughout the caseload cycle. We are allocating final caseload and administrative grants for 2026 to CSFP state agencies, including Tribes and U.S. territories.
This collection is a revision of a currently approved collection for state administrative expense funds expended in the operation of the child nutrition programs administered under the Child Nutrition Act of 1966.
We are issuing this memorandum to provide CSFP state agencies, including ITOs, with guidance on implementing 7 CFR § 247.14(a), which requires local agencies, as appropriate, to make referrals and provide CSFP applicants with written information on specific public assistance programs.