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Current News & Analyses

Updated March 2008

Highlights of the
Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004

On June 30, 2004, President Bush signed the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 into law (Public Law 108-265). The Act expands the availability of nutritious meals and snacks to more children in school, in outside school hours programs, and in child care; and improves the quality of food in schools by:

National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs

  • Simplifying the school meal application process by phasing in mandatory direct certification of food stamp households as eligible for free school meals, meaning that those families will no longer need to fill out any paperwork to start receiving free school meals. Click here for more details about this provision.

  • Easing the process for low-income families that do submit school meal applications by extending eligibility through the full school year and allowing them to fill out only one application for all the children in the household. Click here for more details about this provision.
  • Providing migrant, homeless and runaway children with automatic eligibility for free school meals. Click here for more details about this provision.

  • Creating new ways to improve the nutrition environment in schools by requiring school districts to adopt local school wellness policies that address healthy eating and physical activity. Click here for more details about this provision.

  • Expanding the popular fresh fruit and vegetable pilots (currently in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and an Indian reservation in New Mexico) to Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington and Indian reservations in Arizona and South Dakota, with special emphasis in new states on serving children in low-income areas. Click here for a USDA press release about this provision. Click here for a table of pilot project states (PDF file).

  • Eliminating paperwork requirements for schools in low-income areas to automatically receive higher "severe need" school breakfast reimbursements. Click here for more details about this provision.

  • Making it possible for up to five states to offer free school meals to families that are currently eligible for reduced price meals, relieving them of the cost of up to 40 cents per meal, depending upon future Congressional funding. Click here for a table of pilot project states (PDF file)

  • Making it possible for more children from military families to receive free and reduced price school meals by excluding privatized housing vouchers from being counted as income. Click here for more details about this provision.

  • Allowing school districts, in addition to individual schools, to reduce paperwork and streamline school meal operations under Provisions 2 and 3. Click here for more details about this provision.

  • Changing the methods that schools use to select households for verification of their eligibility for free or reduced price meals. Click here for more details about this provision.

Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)

  • Changing the SFSP area eligibility threshold in rural areas of Pennsylvania from 50 to 40 percent for two years (in effect, expanding eligibility). Click here for a table of pilot project states (PDF file).

  • Allowing California private non-profit organizations and local government agencies, excluding schools, to feed children year-round through the SFSP. Click here for more details about this provision.

  • Providing for 60 sponsors in five states to implement innovative solutions to rural transportation barriers in the SFSP for three years. Click here for more details about this provision.

Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)

  • Extending eligibility for snacks and meals for children in homeless and domestic violence shelters up to the age of 18 (the current cut-off is 12). A USDA memo about this provision.

  • Allowing for-profit child care centers that serve significant numbers of low-income children to feed children using CACFP. A USDA memo about this provision.

  • Extending the CACFP area eligibility threshold for family child care homes in rural areas of Nebraska from 50 to 40 percent for two years (in effect, expanding eligibility). Read more.


  • Extending the duration of area eligibility from three to five years.


  • Providing some much needed relief from CACFP paperwork burdens, including raising the audit disregard, allowing permanent agreements, creating a USDA led paperwork reduction effort. Read more.


  • Excluding privatized military housing allowances from consideration as income when determining low-income eligibility for CACFP. Read more.

  • Highlights of the Act's CACFP provisions.

  • Complete list of the Act's CACFP provisions


Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)

  • Expanding the definition of WIC nutrition education to include education designed to achieve a positive change in physical activity habits. Read more.

  • Expanding the definition of WIC foods to include foods that promote the health of the WIC population as indicated by relevant science, public health concerns, and cultural eating patterns. Read more.

  • Requiring USDA to issue a final rule updating the WIC food package, and mandating a scientific review and revision of the WIC food package as often as necessary. Read more.

  • Allowing the certification of breast-feeding women for up to 1 year.


  • Providing vendor management cost containment requirements for WIC-Only stores in order to reduce higher prices charged by many of these stores which, if unaddressed, could lead to fewer WIC participants.

  • Summary of the Act's WIC provisions.

Farmer's Market Nutrition Program

  • Providing a State option to expand the definition of Farmer's Market to include road side stands.


  • Raising the maximum federal benefit from $20 to $30 per season.


Click here for the text, summaries, analyses and press releases about the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004.

Click here to return to FRAC's Child Nutrition Reauthorization website.

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Prepared by the Food Research & Action Center, 1875 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20009; 202-986-2200; www.frac.org