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.
This memorandum provides guidance on the school year 2026-2027 Buy American accommodation process outlined in 7 CFR 210.21(d)(8) and 7 CFR 220.16(d)(8).
Product Formulation Statement templates and samples for demonstrating how a food product may contribute to the meal pattern requirements in USDA child nutrition programs.
The child nutrition label provides a way for a manufacturer to demonstrate how a food product may contribute to the meal pattern requirements in child nutrition programs.
This toolkit contains resources for use by food industry to understand meal pattern requirements for USDA child nutrition programs, how food products may contribute toward the meal pattern requirements, and food product documentation used in the CNP.
The term alternate protein product is the name we use to identify products meeting requirements set forth in Appendix A of the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Summer Food Service Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program within the section entitled “Alternate Protein Products.”
A manufacturer’s product formulation statement is a document that demonstrates how a food product may contribute to the meal pattern requirements in USDA child nutrition programs.
The child nutrition label provides a way for a manufacturer to demonstrate how a food product may contribute to the meal pattern requirements in child nutrition programs.
State agencies, Indian Tribal Organizations, and program operators administering the Commodity Supplemental Food Program or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations can use the resources in this toolkit to support their management of USDA Foods from ordering to distribution.