Food and Nutrition Service – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this information collection. This collection is a revision of a currently approved collection which FNS employs to determine public participation in the National School Lunch Program.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this information collection. This collection is a revision of a currently approved collection which FNS employs to determine public participation in the School Breakfast Program.

This proposed rule would establish the basic requirements for the operation of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) in conformance with the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act. It would set forth administrative and operational requirements for FFVP operators at the State and local levels. The intent of these provisions is to ensure that the FFVP encourages the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables by elementary school children, thus improving their dietary habits and long-term health.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on the proposed information collection for the APEC-II Study.

This final rule updates the meal patterns and nutrition standards for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs to align them with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This rule requires most schools to increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free and low-fat fluid milk in school meals; reduce the levels of sodium, saturated fat and trans fat in meals; and meet the nutrition needs of school children within their calorie requirements. These improvements to the school meal programs, largely based on recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, are expected to enhance the diet and health of school children, and help mitigate the childhood obesity trend.

This notice announces the surplus and purchased foods that the Department expects to make available for donation to States for use in providing nutrition assistance to the needy under The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2012. The foods made available under this notice must, at the discretion of the State, be distributed to eligible recipient agencies for use in preparing meals and/or for distribution to households for home consumption.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection. This collection is a new collection for research on the rates, causes, and costs of churning in SNAP.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed collection. This is a new collection for the contract WIC Local Agency Breastfeeding Policy and Practices Inventory.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on a proposed information collection. This proposed collection is for ``Assessment of the Contributions of an Interview to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Eligibility and Benefit Determinations.'' The proposed collection will examine if there is a difference in payment accuracy, program access, administrative costs, and client satisfaction under two conditions: usual application procedures and the no-interview test condition.

This direct final rule is amending the Quality Control (QC) review error threshold in our regulations from $25.00 to $50.00. The purpose for raising the QC error threshold is to make permanent the temporary threshold change that was required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2008. This change does not have an impact on the public. The QC system measures the accuracy of the eligibility system for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection related to State administrative expense funds expended in the operation of the Child Nutrition Programs administered under the Child Nutrition Act of 1966. This collection is a revision of a currently approved collection.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection. This collection is a new information collection for the School Foodservice Indirect Cost Study.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection. This collection is a revision of a currently approved collection for the development and maintenance of a central repository containing information about authorized WIC foods as approved by various WIC State agencies.

In accordance with Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on proposed information collections. The proposed collection is a revision of a currently approved collection. The purpose of Section 6(o) of the Food and Nutrition Act is to establish a time limit for the receipt of benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for certain able-bodied adults who are not working. The provision authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture, upon a State agency's request, to waive the provision for any group of individuals if the Secretary determines ``that the area in which the individuals reside has an unemployment rate of over 10 percent, or does not have a sufficient number of jobs to provide employment for the individuals.'' As required in the statute, in order to receive a waiver the State agency must submit sufficient supporting information so that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) can make the required determination as to the area's unemployment rate or sufficiency of available jobs. This collection of information is, therefore, necessary in order to obtain waivers of the SNAP time limit.

This rule proposes to amend Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)formerly the Food Stamp Program) regulations to implement the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the Farm Bill), which requires adequate system testing before and after implementation of a new State automatic data processing (ADP) and information retrieval system, including the evaluation of data from pilot projects in limited areas for major systems changes, before the Secretary approves the system to be implemented more broadly. It also provides that systems be operated in accordance with an adequate plan for continuous updating to reflect changed policy and circumstances, and for testing the effects of the system on access by eligible households and on payment accuracy. This proposed rule would also specify the requirements for submission of a test plan. Further, the rule proposes changing the due date of an Advance Planning Document Update (APDU) from 90 days after to 60 days prior to the expiration of the Federal financial participation (FFP) approval and revises language regarding the Federal share of costs in consolidated information technology (IT) operations to specify that the threshold for service agreements applies to federally aided public assistance programs, rather than to SNAP alone. In addition, this rule proposes to amend the SNAP regulations relating to the establishment of an automated data processing and information retrieval system and to provide clarifications and updates which have occurred since this section was last updated in 1996.

Schools participating in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program (``SMPs'') need nutrition information and ingredient lists for menu planning and to assess foods to be used in meeting meal pattern requirements of the SMPs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is interested in examining what nutrition information and ingredient lists are made available to schools, the manner and scope of the information's accessibility, and how that information and accessibility compare with the information schools may be seeking. FNS would like to better understand what information sources, such as the Child Nutrition Database, USDA Foods nutrition fact sheets, and information directly from the manufacturer, are used by schools to both procure foods and plan menus for the SMPs. FNS has received numerous inquiries from schools seeking assistance in locating and assessing nutrition information and ingredient lists for USDA Foods as well as commercially selected foods. A better understanding of what nutrition information and ingredients lists are provided, the source of the information and the medium in which the information is received are all necessary components to fully understand what resources schools need to successfully plan SMPs meals. In addition, we anticipate this information will provide FNS with key insights in our implementation of Section 9(a)(4)(C) of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, 42 U.S.C. 1758(a)(4)(C) as amended by Section 242 of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, Public Law 111-296.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection. This information collection will conduct research by methodological testing, surveys, focus groups, and related tools to assess program performance, respond to the needs of policymakers, and develop innovative approaches that bear on the practical operations, management, and impact of Federal nutrition assistance programs.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on proposed information collection. The proposed collection is a new collection for the purpose of conducting the Study of the Effectiveness of Efforts to Increase Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation Among Medicare's Extra Help Population Pilot Projects.

This notice announces the national average value of donated foods or, where applicable, cash in lieu of donated foods, to be provided in school year 2012 (July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012) for each lunch served by schools participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), and for each lunch and supper served by institutions participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).

This Notice announces the annual adjustments to the ``national average payments,'' the amount of money the Federal Government provides States for lunches, afterschool snacks and breakfasts served to children participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs; to the ``maximum reimbursement rates,'' the maximum per lunch rate from Federal funds that a State can provide a school food authority for lunches served to children participating in the National School Lunch Program; and to the rate of reimbursement for a half-pint of milk served to non-needy children in a school or institution which participates in the Special Milk Program for Children. The payments and rates are prescribed on an annual basis each July. The annual payments and rates adjustments for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs reflect changes in the Food Away From Home series of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. The annual rate adjustment for the Special Milk Program reflects changes in the Producer Price Index for Fluid Milk Products.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this information collection. This collection is a revision of a currently approved collection which FNS employs to determine public participation and the distribution of foods in the Food Distribution Programs.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, section 1, et seq., 5 U.S.C. App., this notice announces a meeting of the National Advisory Council on Maternal, Infant and Fetal Nutrition.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on proposed information collections. The proposed collection is a revision of a currently approved collection. The purpose of this information collection request is to continue the use of the electronic form FNS 674, titled ``FNS User Access Request.'' This form will continue to allow access to current FNS systems, modified access, or to remove user access.