These briefs share the findings from the USDA School Food Preparation Study.
This notice announces the Department's annual adjustments to the Income Eligibility Guidelines to be used in determining eligibility for free and reduced-price meals, free milk, and Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer benefits for the period from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027.
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 TEFAP program guidance memorandum transmits the 2026 income guidelines for state agencies and tribes in determining the eligibility of individuals applying to participate in TEFAP.
This memorandum transmits the 2026 income guidelines for state agencies and tribes in determining the eligibility of individuals applying to participate in CSFP.
The studies encompassed under this information collection will collect data from school food authorities administering the child nutrition programs, including information on emerging and ongoing challenges, their impacts on operations and student participation, and strategies SFAs are undertaking to address challenges they face.
The National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program are central parts of a national policy designed to safeguard and promote the nutritional well-being of the Nation’s children. The programs are administered by FNA, operating through state agencies that have agreements with the local school systems in their states. Despite the progress that has been achieved over the years in enhancing the quality of school meals, results of research conducted in the early 1990s indicated that school meals, on balance, were failing to meet certain key nutritional goals.