Montgomery Area Food Bank
"Feeding Hope Across Alabama"
521 Trade Center Street | Montgomery AL 36108 | 334-263-3784
Since 1986
One out of five of us deal with Food Insecurity, which means four out of five of us could help!
MAFB is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and an equal opportunity employer and provider.
Any donations made through our website are done so through a secure server. We never sell or rent our supporter's names.
Who We Are...What We Do
USDA Announces School and Summer Meals Reform
(San Antonio, TX, January 17, 2020) – Delivering on his promise to act on feedback from dietary professionals, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced two proposals today, that will put local school and summer food service operators back in the driver’s seat of their programs, because they know their children best.
Under the school meals proposed rule, school nutrition professionals have more flexibility to serve appetizing and healthy meals that appeal to their students’ preferences and subsequently reduce food waste. The proposed rule also encourages state and local operators to focus resources on feeding children rather than administrative paperwork. These improvements build on the 2018 reforms that preserve strong nutrition standards while providing schools the additional flexibility they need to best serve America's students.
“Schools and school districts continue to tell us that there is still too much food waste and that more common-sense flexibility is needed to provide students nutritious and appetizing meals. We listened and now we’re getting to work,” said Secretary Perdue. “Our proposed changes empower schools to give their very best to our children nationwide and have the potential to benefit nearly 100,000 schools and institutions that feed 30 million children each school day through USDA’s school meal programs. Providing children with wholesome, nutritious food is part of our motto at USDA, which is to ‘do right and feed everyone.’”
USDA also proposed another rule with customer-focused reforms to the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), which serves more than 2.6 million children during the summer months, when they are at higher risk of food insecurity and poor nutrition because they do not have access to school meals.
The summer feeding rule offers operators more local control to better serve children by:
•
Providing more flexibilities in choosing meal offerings, meal service times, and allowing children to take certain nonperishable food items offsite;
Providing more flexibilities in choosing meal offerings, meal service times, and allowing children to take certain nonperishable food items offsite;•Granting tested and proven flexibilities that make it easier for sponsors and sites to participate by reducing paperwork and streamlining the application process for high-performing, experienced operators;
Granting tested and proven flexibilities that make it easier for sponsors and sites to participate by reducing paperwork and streamlining the application process for high-performing, experienced operators;•Balancing program integrity and flexibility with stronger monitoring to help sponsors maximize their resources; and
Balancing program integrity and flexibility with stronger monitoring to help sponsors maximize their resources; and•Clarifying performance standards and eligibility requirements for sites.
Clarifying performance standards and eligibility requirements for sites.USDA remains committed to listening to and collaborating with customers, partners, and stakeholders to make these proposed reforms as effective as possible and encourages all those who are interested in school meals, summer meals, and all child nutrition programs to comment on the proposals once they publish on Regulations.gov.
USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) works to reduce food insecurity and promote nutritious diets among the American people. The agency administers 15 nutrition assistance programs that leverage American’s agricultural abundance to ensure children and low-income individuals and families have nutritious food to eat. FNS also co-develops the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which provide science-based nutrition recommendations and serve as the cornerstone of federal nutrition policy.
