F809: Ensure meals and snacks are served at times in accordance with resident’s needs, preferences, and requests. Suitable and nourishing alternative meals and snacks must be provided for residents who want to eat at non-traditional times or outside of scheduled meal times
F809 is one of the federal requirements every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home must meet. CMS describes it as: Ensure meals and snacks are served at times in accordance with resident’s needs, preferences, and requests. Suitable and nourishing alternative meals and snacks must be provided for residents who want to eat at non-traditional times or outside of scheduled meal times.
It sits in CMS's nutrition and dietary category.
CMS Health Deficiencies file, data as of September 1, 2026. The files hold each home's last three standard inspections and three years of complaint visits.
How seriously inspectors rate it
Every citation gets a letter for how much harm inspectors found and how many residents it touched (how to read the letters). 30.8% of F809 citations came from a complaint visit rather than a routine inspection.
By letter: B 6, C 6, D 163, E 467, F 183, G 1, L 1.
What inspectors wrote
Three recent F809 citations from different states, quoted from the inspectors' statements of deficiencies (CMS form 2567). Names are removed by CMS.
Inspectors wrote, July 31, 2026, scope and severity FBased on observation, interview, and record review, the facility failed to ensure residents are receiving meals at scheduled times. These failures have the potential to affect all 172 residents receiving oral diets from the facility's kitchen.
Austin Oasis, the, Chicago, IL
Inspectors wrote, July 30, 2026, scope and severity DBased on record review, interview, observation, and facility policy review, the facility failed to provide substantial nutritional evening snacks when mealtimes were greater than 14 hours. This affected three residents (Residents #49, #96 and #99) of 20 residents (Residents #4, #25, #29, #30, #41, #48, #49, #59, #76, #78, #86, #89, #90, #92, #94, #96, #98, #99, #100 and #102) who reside on the memory care unit and receive meals from the kitchen. The facility census was 95.
Avenue at Brooklyn, Brooklyn, OH
Inspectors wrote, July 27, 2026, scope and severity FBased on record review, observations, and staff interviews, the facility failed to serve 3 of 4 meals observed (the lunch meal on 7/19/26 and the breakfast and lunch meals on 7/21/26) at scheduled mealtimes. This failure had the potential to affect all residents who received food by mouth on 2 of 2 hallways (Halls 100 and 200). The facility had a census of 115.
Cabarrus Health and Rehabilitation Center, Concord, NC
Most recent F809 citations at the harm or jeopardy level
Newest first, all 2 in the current files. Each home's page shows the citation in full context, with its correction status.
| Inspection | Home | Town | Letter | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 26, 2025 | The Haven of Tuscola | Tuscola, IL | G | Complaint |
| June 11, 2025 | Kadima Rehabilitation & Nursing at Luzerne | Drums, PA | L | Complaint |
Most recent F809 citations
F809 citations by state
Counts depend on how many homes a state has and how often its inspectors visit, so a larger number is not by itself a worse record.
By inspection year: 2018 6, 2019 18, 2020 5, 2021 21, 2022 41, 2023 156, 2024 258, 2025 207, 2026 115.
Common questions
- What is F809 in a nursing home inspection?
- F809 is the federal requirement to "ensure meals and snacks are served at times in accordance with resident’s needs, preferences, and requests. suitable and nourishing alternative meals and snacks must be provided for residents who want to eat at non-traditional times or outside of scheduled meal times". CMS files it under nutrition and dietary. A home cited under F809 did not meet that requirement at the inspection.
- How often is F809 cited?
- The CMS files as of September 1, 2026 list 827 F809 citations at 743 nursing homes, 157 of them in the 12 months to that date. 0.2% were rated as actual harm or immediate jeopardy.
- Is a F809 citation serious?
- It depends on the letter. Most F809 citations (98.3%) were rated as potential for more than minimal harm, D to F. 1 were immediate jeopardy, the most serious level.
The interpretive guidance inspectors use for each F-tag is CMS's State Operations Manual, Appendix PP. NursingHomeClear reports the citations as CMS records them and is not affiliated with CMS. All F-tags · Methodology