On December 29, 2022, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 was signed into law and included significant policy changes for Child Nutrition programming, including the authorization of a permanent, non-congregate meal service through the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP) Seamless Summer Option (SSO) for rural areas with no congregate meal service. Federal regulation changes will be finalized at the end of 2024.
In summer 2023, TDA used the discretion provided to States in the Appropriations Act and subsequent guidance from USDA to create a Non-Congregate Feeding Pilot Program in rural areas where no congregate service existed. This pilot program allowed a limited number of contracting entities to provide non-congregate service in summer 2023, which will in turn allow TDA to gather data on non-congregate feeding that USDA will use to develop new regulation. The infrastructure and lessons learned from this pilot will give TDA the knowledge to implement a permanent program in Summer 2024 and beyond.
Note that the requirements for implementing non-congregate meal service in Summer 2023 are subject to change in Summer 2024 and beyond once the new regulatory requirements are published.