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.
The purpose of this memorandum is to remind schools, sponsors, and institutions participating in any U.S. Department of Agriculture 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 various resources available to help child nutrition program operators procure local foods.
We are committed to supporting state agency efforts to combat fraud, waste, and abuse by further clarifying statutory, regulatory and administrative requirements through this guidance for the SFSP rural non-congregate meal service.
The attached memorandum is intended for immediate distribution to state agencies in your region. Dissemination of this memorandum without changes will ensure uniform implementation of these legislative provisions.
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.
This memorandum provides Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) agencies information on program oversight and expectations for the 2026 plans for operations and management (POM) and program implementation.
As a reminder, meals and snacks offered through the child nutrition programs may be claimed for federal reimbursement if they meet the federal nutrition requirements and other federal regulations. State agencies may not withhold federal reimbursement for meals that meet the federal requirements, even if additional state requirements are not met. However, if a state provides an additional reimbursement above the federal reimbursement, they may withhold the state reimbursement.
The purpose of this memorandum is 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.
This memorandum shares a letter from the United States Department of Education to Chief State School Officers regarding the applicability of FERPA to the disclosure of personally identifiable information for students' education records to facilitate the automatic enrollment of eligible children in the Summer EBT Program.
This memorandum provides additional clarification on questions received from state agencies and program stakeholders. It also includes guidance on integrity measures for non-congregate meal service operations.