Food and Nutrition Service April 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This final rule updates the meal pattern requirements for the Child and Adult Care Food Program to better align them with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, as required by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. This rule requires centers and day care homes participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program to serve more whole grains and a greater variety of vegetables and fruit, and reduces the amount of added sugars and solid fats in meals. In addition, this final rule supports mothers who breastfeed and improves consistency with the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children and with other Child Nutrition Programs. Several of the changes are extended to the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, and Special Milk Program. These changes are based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, science-based recommendations made by the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies), cost and practical considerations, and stakeholder's input. This is the first major revision of the Child and Adult Care Food Program meal patterns since the Program's inception in 1968. These improvements to the meals served in the Child and Adult Care Food Program are expected to safeguard the health of young children by ensuring healthy eating habits are developed early, and improve the wellness of adult participants.

This rule revises and clarifies requirements to ensure that USDA donated foods are distributed, stored, and managed in the safest, most efficient, and cost-effective manner, at State and recipient agency levels. The rule also reduces administrative and reporting requirements for State distributing agencies, revises or clarifies regulatory provisions relating to accountability for donated foods, and rewrites much of the regulations in a more user-friendly, ``plain language,'' format. Lastly, the rule revises and clarifies specific requirements to conform more closely to related requirements in corresponding regulations and current law.

The final rule entitled Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Review of Major Changes in Program Design and Management Evaluation Systems was published on January 19, 2016. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) cleared the associated information collection requirements (ICR) on March 10, 2016. This document announces approval of the ICR.

This document contains a correction to the proposed rule published in the Federal Register on March 14, 2016, ``Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Promotion.'' The Food and Nutrition Service published a proposed rule in the Federal Register, 81 FR 13290, on March 14, 2016, to implement section 4018 of the Agricultural Act of 2014. Section 4018 created new limitations on the use of federal funds authorized in the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (FNA), for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) promotion and outreach activities. The summary of the proposed rule is being corrected to aid in clarity to the reader.