This preliminary review and analysis of Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) programs covers their activities during the fiscal year 1976. It is divided into two major program areas, Family Food Assistance and Child Nutrition. The Food and Nutrition Service was established in August 1969 to concentrate on the administration of Federal food programs. In the seven years since then, Federal funding for food assistance activities, including costs for administration, has grown from around one billion dollars to over eight billion dollars in fiscal year 1976, ending June 30. Of that, over 2.4 billion dollars was spent for child nutrition programs and 5.9 billion dollars for family food assistance. Family food assistance, in the form of either food stamps or food distribution, has been virtually 100 percent available to all areas for the past five years. Over 400 U.S. counties, which in 1969 had no program of food assistance for needy families, now operate a program. Except for less than 100,000 people, mostly American Indians on reservations receiving food donations, needy families getting family food assistance are in the Food Stamp Program. (Author/JM)