The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers food security programs. While its staff number amongst USDA's fewest, its budget is by far the largest. This money is spent on entitlement food security programs.

These programs most notably include:

• Food stamps
• National School Lunch Program (NSLP), school breakfast program, and afterschool snack program, which provide free or reduced price meals to children from qualifying households
• Woman Infants and Children (WIC) program

In the United States, the lunches that are subsidized by the NSLP are nearly ubiquitous in public schools. The program has operated since 1946.