School food service programs such as we have in 1971 did not just happen over-night nor even during the past decade. Preceding today's programs is a long history of more than a hundred years of development, of testing and evaluating, and of constant research to provide the best in nutrition, nutrition education, and food service for the nation's millions of children in school.
This memorandum clarifies FNS policy regarding the calorie and nutrient requirements for meals planned using alternate menu planning approaches.
The Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans outline nutrient-dense foods and beverages, their amounts, and associated costs that can be purchased on three successively higher budgets, each supporting a healthy diet through nutritious meals and snacks at home. The Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans are used by various federal and state agencies and the court system.
The Thrifty Food Plan, a fundamental part of the U.S. food guidance system and the basis for maximum food stamp allotments, has been revised by USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, with assistance from USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, Economic Research Service, and Agricultural Research Service. The TFP provides a representative healthful and minimal cost meal plan that shows how a nutritious diet may be achieved with limited resources. The plan assumes that all purchased food is consumed at home.
It has come to our attention that there may be some confusion concerning fluid milk, and how it is offered in reimbursable lunches. Under all menu planning approaches, fluid milk is a separate food component/menu item.
The recipes from the 1988 Quantity Recipes for School Food Service and the 1995 Tool Kit for Healthy School Meals were revised using updated yields from the Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs and using the 2005 Food Code for the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points.
This study examines the implementation of provisions to improve our understanding of the variation in state and local approaches, the challenges encountered in restoring eligibility, the degree to which the eligibility restorations brought new immigrant households into the program; and the potential impacts of sponsor deeming and liability policies.
In 2001, the Food and Nutrition Service awarded $3.7 million in grants to 14 organizations in 11 states to improve Food Stamp Program access through partnerships and new technology. These projects generally aimed to improve access among the elderly, immigrants, the working poor, and other hard-to-reach groups. The projects used a variety of approaches, including targeted advertising campaigns through community media outlets, informational web sites, computer-assisted pre-screening for eligibility, and direct application assistance.
The categories of noncitizens eligible to participate in the Food Stamp Program under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 have been expanded to include the minor children, spouses and in some cases the parents and siblings of victims of severe trafficking.
This memorandum supplements our Reauthorization Implementation Memo SP 4 by providing additional information on identifying migrant children and on the procedures that school food authorities and local education agencies should use to coordinate with the Migrant Education Program in order to document the categorical eligibility of migrant children for free meals.