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Nutritional Services
 

The Head Start Program Performance Standards 1304.23(b)(1) through 1304.23(b)(4) regulates nutritional services offered by Head Start programs. It offers specific guidelines to program staff for implementing a nutrition program, meeting the needs of special dietary requirements, and involving the parents and the community in evaluating the nutritional programs.

The following is an excerpt from Head Start Program Performance Standard 1304.23(b)

Nutritional Services

  1. Grantee and delegate agencies must design and implement a nutrition program that meets the nutritional needs and feeding requirements of each child, including those with special dietary needs and children with disabilities. Also, the nutrition program must serve a variety of foods which consider cultural and ethnic preferences and which broaden the child's food experience.
    1. All Early Head Start and Head Start grantee and delegate agencies must use funds from USDA Food and Consumer Services Child Nutrition Programs as the primary source of payment for meal services. Early Head Start and Head Start funds may be used to cover those allowable costs not covered by the USDA.
    2. Each child in a part-day center-based setting must receive meals and snacks that provide at least one-third of the child's daily nutritional needs. Each child in a center-based full-day program must receive meals and snacks that provide one-half to two-thirds of the child's daily nutritional needs, depending upon the length of the program day.
    3. All children in morning center-based settings who have not received breakfast at the time they arrive at the Early Head Start or Head Start program must be served a nourishing breakfast.
    4. Each infant and toddler in center-based settings must receive food appropriate to his or her nutritional needs, developmental readiness, and feeding skills, as recommended in the USDA meal pattern or nutrient standard menu planning requirements outlined in 7 CFR parts 210, 220, and 226.
    5. For 3- to 5-year-olds in center-based settings, the quantities and kinds of food served must conform to recommended serving sizes and minimum standards for meal patterns recommended in the USDA meal pattern or nutrient standard menu planning requirements outlined in 7 CFR parts 210, 220, and 226.
    6. For 3- to 5-year-olds in center-based settings or other Head Start group experiences, foods served must be high in nutrients and low in fat, sugar, and salt.
    7. Meal and snack periods in center-based settings must be appropriately scheduled and adjusted, where necessary, to ensure that individual needs are met. Infants and young toddlers who need it must be fed "on demand" to the extent possible or at appropriate intervals.
  1. Grantee and delegate agencies operating home-based program options must provide appropriate snacks and meals to each child during group socialization activities (see 45 CFR 1306.33 for information regarding home-based group socialization).
  2. Staff must promote effective dental hygiene among children in conjunction with meals.
  3. Parents and appropriate community agencies must be involved in planning, implementing, and evaluating the agencies' nutritional services.

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Nutritional Services. Head Start Program Performance Standard 1304.23(b). HHS/ACF/OHS. n.d. English.