Food and Nutrition Service November 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This rulemaking proposes to codify three menu planning flexibilities established by the interim final rule titled, Child Nutrition Programs: Flexibilities for Milk, Whole Grains, and Sodium Requirements published November 30, 2017, and made permanent with some modifications by a final rule of the same title published December 12, 2018, hereafter referred to as the 2018 Final Rule. An April 2020 court decision vacated and remanded the 2018 Final Rule. In response to the vacatur and remand of the 2018 Final Rule, this rule proposes targeted changes to: Allow National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program operators to permanently offer flavored, low-fat milk as part of a reimbursable meal and for sale as a competitive beverage and allow flavored, low-fat milk in the Special Milk Program for Children and in the Child and Adult Care Food Program for participants ages 6 and older; allow for half of the weekly grains in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program menus to be whole grain-rich; and provide schools participating in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Programs more time for gradual sodium reduction by retaining Sodium Target 1 through the end of school year (SY) 2023- 2024, continuing to Target 2 in SY 2024-2025, and eliminating the Final Target.

The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS or the Agency), an agency of the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA or the Department), is issuing a final rule to add regulations that will ensure the integrity of the supplemental allotments created by Section 1101 of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), as amended by the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act (CR) for households with children who would have otherwise received free or reduced price school meals under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, but for school closures or reduction in the number of days or hours that students attend school in response to the ongoing and national Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Public Health Emergency. Such allotments are referred to as Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P- EBT) benefits. The CR extended the authority for P-EBT through Fiscal Year (FY) 2021, and also authorized P-EBT for households with at least one child enrolled in a covered child care facility (as defined by Section 1101(i)(1) of the FFCRA, as amended) and the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) when the covered child care facility is closed or has reduced attendance or hours or one or more schools in the area of the covered child care facility are closed or have reduced attendance or hours. This final rule would also safeguard the integrity of SNAP, as P-EBT operates within the SNAP infrastructure. USDA FNS is responsible for administering P-EBT and SNAP at the Federal level.