School Breakfast Program

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 (*).

The 2024-2025 School Year Income Verification Procedures and associated attachments can be found under the Eligibility tab.

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.

The Keep Kids Fed Act of 2022 (KKFA), which President Biden signed into law on June 25, 2022, provides additional support and resources to help Child Nutrition Program (CN) operators continue to serve healthy meals to children during this challenging time.

While KKFA does not extend the broader waiver authority or the resources that would allow USDA to extend the full range of flexibilities currently in place—most notably the ability to serve all meals for free—it is a critical step forward.

All public elementary or secondary schools with at least seventy percent or more of its students eligible for free or reduced-price meals under the federal National School Lunch Program are required to offer all students a school breakfast after the instructional day has begun, “Breakfast After the Bell”. The schools meeting 70 percent free and reduced price is determined annually by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) based upon data submitted through the basic educational data system (BEDS) for the prior school year.

*This is a consolidated list of information available on the website regarding program operations for school year 2022-2023 Program operations.  Recent updates will be noted by the asterisk (*).

Waivers Available for the 2022-2023 SY

The New York State Education Department has received State-level waiver authority from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to approve the following flexibilities that School Food Authorities (SFA) may need to respond and recover from the COVID 19 pandemic during the 2022-2023 school year. These flexibilities should be used only for the duration and extent that they are needed. All waivers will expire on June 30, 2023.

This memorandum announces the income eligibility guidelines for the 2024-2025 school year and provides each School Food Authority (SFA) with the forms and guidance needed to process applications for free and reduced-price meals and/or milk.