School Breakfast Program

The New York State Education Department (SED), Office of Child Nutrition Program Administration hosted two listening sessions on March 9^th and 16^th of 2023 to hear from New York State school food professionals on the potential impact of the “Child Nutrition Programs: Revision to Meal Patterns Consistent with the 2020 Dietary Guideline for Americans” federal proposed rule.

The New York State Education Department has received State-level waiver authority from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to approve the following operational flexibilities that may be needed to provide meals to students required to learn virtually due to an unanticipated school closure during the remainder of the 2022-2023 school year.

Non-Congregate Meal Service

Upon approval from NYSED, allows students to consume meals outside of school settings.

The New York State Education Department (SED) Child Nutrition Program Office is embarking on a project to identify and collect best practices from School Food Authorities (SFAs) operating the school meal programs across our state.  SED’s goal for this project is to develop new child nutrition tools and resources to assist SFAs in navigating challenges and enhancing their meal programs. 

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) and Provision 2 (P2) Application is now available for the 2025-26 school year. Guidance can be found:

USDA webinar found here: https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/proposed-rule-cep-increasing-options-schools....

Join us in celebrating National School Breakfast Week!

National School Breakfast Week celebrates the importance of starting the school day with a healthy meal! From March 6-10, 2023, schools are encouraged to recognize the importance of a nutritious breakfast for all students. This year’s theme is “Dig into School Breakfast”.

A printer-friendly version of the memo and Q&As can be found here.

From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has provided operational flexibilities and additional funding to School Food Authorities (SFAs) to help overcome challenges and ensure children have continued access to meals. As a result, many SFAs now have a substantial positive balance in their school food service accounts, some in excess of the maximum balance allowed by federal regulations. This memo provides guidance to SFAs on current flexibilities and acceptable uses of the school food service account funds.

Original memo dated 10/03/2022.  Recent updates will be noted by the asterisk (*).

Adult Selling Prices

Breakfast

• Schools that receive regular reimbursement for breakfast must charge a minimum of $2.37 plus tax for an adult breakfast meal.
• Schools that receive severe need reimbursement for breakfast must charge a minimum of $2.78 plus tax for an adult breakfast meal.

Lunch

• Schools that receive under 60% plus the additional PBR* ($4.4699) for lunch must charge a minimum of $4.90 plus tax for an adult lunch.