Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program plays a vital role in improving the quality of day care and making it more
affordable for many low-income families. Each day, 2.6 million children receive nutritious meals and snacks through CACFP.
The program also provides meals and snacks to 74,000 adults who receive care in nonresidential adult day care centers. CACFP
reaches even further to provide meals to children residing in homeless shelters, and snacks and suppers to youths participating
in eligible afterschool care programs.
Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) CSFP works to improve the health of low-income pregnant and breastfeeding women, other new mothers up to one year postpartum,
infants, children up to age six, and elderly people at least 60 years of age by supplementing their diets with nutritious
USDA commodity foods. It provides food and administrative funds to States to supplement the diets of these groups.
Eat Smart Play Hard
Eat Smart. Play Hard.TM is about making America's children healthier. It's about practical suggestions that will help
you motivate children and their caregivers to eat healthy and be active. The Eat Smart. Play Hard.TM Campaign messages and
materials are fun for children and informative for caregivers. To make your job easier, we have kid-tested the messages and
based them on the Food Guide Pyramid and Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (FMNP)The WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) provides fresh, unprepared, locally grown fruits and vegetables
from local farmers' markets to Women, Infants and Children (WIC) recipients.
Food Assistance for Disaster Relief
FNS’s Food Distribution Division has the primary responsibility of supplying food to disaster relief organizations
such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army for mass feeding or household distribution. Disaster organizations request food
and nutrition assistance through State agencies that run USDA’s nutrition assistance programs. State agencies notify
USDA of the types and quantities of food that relief organizations need for emergency feeding operations.
National School Lunch Program (NSLP)School districts and independent schools that choose to take part in the lunch program get cash subsidies and
donated commodities from the USDA for each meal they serve. In return, they must serve lunches that meet Federal requirements,
and they must offer free or reduced price lunches to eligible children. School food authorities can also be reimbursed for
snacks served to children through age 18 in afterschool educational or enrichment programs.
School Breakfast Program (SBP)The School Breakfast Program operates in the same manner as the National School Lunch Program.
School districts and independent schools that choose to take part in the breakfast program receive cash subsidies from the
USDA for each meal they serve. In return, they must serve breakfasts that meet Federal requirements, and they must offer free
or reduced price breakfasts to eligible children.
Special Milk Program (SMP)Participating schools and institutions receive reimbursement from the USDA for each half pint of milk
served. They must operate their milk programs on a non-profit basis. They agree to use the Federal reimbursement to reduce
the selling price of milk to all children.
State Processing Program
The State Processing Program allows States and eligible recipient agencies such as school districts to contract
with commercial food processors to convert bulk or raw USDA commodities into more convenient ready-to-use end products. Most
of the commodities processed through this program go to schools participating in the National School Lunch Program. Once the
donated food is made available to States, the overall organization and administration of the State Processing Program become
the responsibilities of the State agency.
Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)SFSP is the single largest Federal resource available for local sponsors who want to combine a feeding
program with a summer activity program. Children in your community do not need to go hungry this summer. During the school
year, nutritious meals are available through the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. But those programs end
when school ends for the summer. The Summer Food Service Program helps fill the hunger gap.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
As of Oct. 1, 2008, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the new name for the federal
Food Stamp Program. The new name reflects the changes we’ve made to meet the needs of our clients, including
a focus on nutrition and an increase in benefit amounts. SNAP is the federal name for the program. State programs may
have different names. SNAP puts healthy food within reach for 28 million people each month via an EBT card used
to purchase food at most grocery stores. Through nutrition education partners, SNAP helps clients learn to make healthy eating
and active lifestyle choices.
Team Nutrition
Team Nutrition is a USDA initiative to provide training and technical assistance for foodservice, nutrition
education for children and their caregivers, and school and community support for healthy eating and physical activity. Team
Nutrition's Goal is to improve children's lifelong eating and physical activity habits by using the principles of
the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Food Guide Pyramid.
The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)Under TEFAP, commodity foods are made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to States. States
provide the food to local agencies that they have selected, usually food banks, which in turn, distribute the food to soup
kitchens and food pantries that directly serve the public.
Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children - better known as the WIC Program
- serves to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, & children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk by providing
nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.
