This direct final rule amends geographic preference option language in National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Special Milk Program for Children, Child and Adult Care Program, and Summer Food Service Program regulations.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins writes 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.
In appreciation of breastfeeding mothers and of all the dedicated volunteers, professionals, communities, and organizations who support their efforts, I, Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture, do hereby proclaim Aug. 1–7, 2026, as National WIC Breastfeeding Week.
USDA’S Food and Nutrition Administration seeks to enter into a cooperative agreement(s) with an organization(s)/agency(ies) with expertise in working with Tribal communities who can develop, design, and implement an innovative nutrition education project for participants and program staff of the FDPIR.
Product Formulation Statement templates and samples for demonstrating how a food product may contribute to the meal pattern requirements in USDA child nutrition programs.
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.
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.
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.
The Child Nutrition Act requires USDA to annually compile and publish breastfeeding performance measurements. We use this data to monitor breastfeeding trends and to help identify exemplary performance of WIC state and local agencies in breastfeeding and make awards to such agencies.