WASHINGTON — USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) today announced its first ever mobile application, putting critical information at the fingertips of food service professionals and making it easier for them to serve wholesome, nutritious, and tasty meals through FNS’s child nutrition programs.
“The Food Buying Guide Mobile App announced today is a major step forward for the agency in its commitment to providing excellent customer service,” said Brandon Lipps, Acting Deputy Under Secretary for USDA’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services. “This new app allows child nutrition program operators to access the guide when and where it’s convenient for them, so they can do what they do best – serve nutritious meals to our children.”
The mobile app is available to the public and can be an immediate resource to over 280,000 program operators responsible for USDA’s National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Child and Adult Care Food Program, and Summer Food Service Program as well as the countless food industry representatives working with these programs.  Ultimately, this technological solution will help operators better serve over 34 million children each day.
“Every child nutrition program operator makes use of the Food Buying Guide to help them choose and purchase the right types and amounts of food for their respective programs. This information, along with related quick reference resources, is expected to bring cost savings and increased efficiency to FNS’s child nutrition programs by helping operators know exactly how much food they need to buy – whether for 30 kids or 30,000,” Lipps said.
Lipps added that FNS will continue to support innovation that improves the delivery and efficiency of FNS’s child nutrition programs, as part of its ongoing commitment to customer service and program integrity.
USDA is currently seeking input from its partners on food crediting, which is the system that defines how each food item fits into a meal for FNS’s child nutrition programs. Comments can be submitted via the Federal Register through February 12, 2018.
FNS administers 15 nutrition assistance programs, including the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, the Summer Food Service Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which together comprise America’s nutrition safety net.
—USDA FNS
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