September 11, 2020, is the last date to apply for Pandemic EBT (P-EBT).
The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Department of Social and Health Services have teamed up to create a new program called Pandemic EBT, or P-EBT, for short. These benefits will help families most impacted by the COVID-19 crisis to continue to have access to nutritious meals.
P-EBT is available for students, including children of immigrant households, who were enrolled in a K-12 school that offered a school lunch program during the 2019-20 school year AND were eligible for free or reduced-price school meals; or attended a school where meals were free for all students.
There are two ways to apply:
- Online: www.WashingtonConnection.org (on the application, choose ‘Pandemic EBT — Emergency School Meals Program’ box in the Food Assistance section); or,
- Call: 877–501–2233 (DSHS Customer Service Contact Center — interpreter services are available)
Please use your social media to get the word out to the families you serve!
Additional information and translated documents are available on the OSPI Pandemic EBT Guidance for Schools webpage.
Renewal applications are now open!
Last week, released a CNS Update detailing important information regarding program renewal for SY20-21.
Important Reminders
- You must submit your WINS application AND Meal Distribution Plan for your renewal application to be considered complete. We recommend to utilize the MDP Sponsor Checklist to help you meet each step.
- Review the applicable bulletins and addendum released for detailed renewal information.
- Application due dates:
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Residential Child Care Institutions- August 30, 2020.
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Public School Districts and Private Schools- September 30, 2020.
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For all sponsors, applications submitted late may not be approved in time to receive reimbursement for meals/milk for the first month of operation.
Questions? Please contact your program specialist.
The goal of the CACFP At-Risk program is to provide children a meal and or snack outside of their school day while they are in a structured and adult-led environment that provides educational support and/or enrichment activities.
Who can apply for At-Risk Meals in the Fall of 2020?
- At-Risk sites providing meals to children on-site in addition to in-person programming/activities.
- Sites offering non-congregate meals to children may be eligible, however there still must be regularly scheduled enrichment or educational activities provided in a structured environment.
- Offered activities may be through a regularly scheduled virtual skype call, a zoom group call, or by a phone call from staff.
- This must be in addition to what is being required for “remote learning” and counting as school instruction/school work.
- Activities must go above and beyond what is offered to the general student population and include contact with or outreach to the child.
- Grab-n-go meals with a sent-home packet of work are not allowed. Sending a packet of materials for the week for the student to work on independently is not sufficient.
- Strictly providing grab-n-go meals is not allowed.
- Staff must directly connect with the students, to provide support, homework help, and/or offer enrichment opportunities extending beyond what is being offered as part of the school day.
Next Steps
You must complete the At-Risk Pre-Qualification Survey. This survey will help interested organizations determine if they are eligible to participate in the CACFP At-Risk program in the upcoming year.
Questions? Please email your program specialist.
This year we are hosting a variety of training sessions using Moodle. You do not have to create an account to view these courses, and you can mark each topic complete as you view them.
Professional Standards Credits are offered for each session. Please keep record of your participation by using your training log or by printing the professional standards slide from the slide printout.
To access these trainings, please visit the NSLP Public Trainings on our Moodle Server.
Our weekly meetings will continue focusing on school district reopening for the 2020-21 School Year.
IMPORTANT UPDATE
The weekly webinars are intended for school nutrition program directors and staff who plan, administer, implement, monitor, and evaluate the operations of the school nutrition programs. Beginning this week, these calls will be directed to school food service directors and educational service district staff only. Participants previously registered that are outside this group will be removed from the call.
A separate webinar will be released for those outside of this group. More information to come.
Register Here Date: Wednesdays through the months of July and August Time: 2 - 3 pm PT
We will continue to record these webinars and email all registrants with a follow up each week.
This software is USDA-approved for nutrient analysis to meet the school meal program requirements and will help you manage ingredients, create recipes, create cycle menus, and more!
With this software, you’ll be able to:
- Manage ingredients and link to stock items
- Create recipes and add them to your menus
- Create custom menus and cycle menus
Training is now provided online! Our next training is scheduled for October!
Visit our PrimeroEdge MPNA software website to request a demo and sign up for training.
The Direct Certification system is open for school year 2020-21.
Students on the district list, confirmed near matches, and students found using the Student Search function are eligible for free and reduced-price meals beginning school year 2020-21.
Direct Certification is the process of matching Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) information with student enrollment in the Comprehensive Education Data and Research System (CEDARS). This helps Local Education Agencies (LEAs) identify students eligible for free and reduced-price meals. Students that are directly certified are not required to submit a meal application to their district.
Direct Certification is required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and must be conducted monthly under Washington state law. RCW 28A.235.280(3)
Students are directly certified for free or reduced-price meals because of participation in the following programs:
- Basic Food
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
- Foster Children
- Medicaid Programs (Only some Medicaid programs)
- Migrant Students
The direct certification list is in OSPI’s Education Data System (EDS). Locate the User Manual and other resources on the CNS webpages.
Due to vendor limitations, please plan for possible order shortages of the following products.
W-Code Products
Discontinued
- W133 Beef Mini Chz Burger Slider Twin – Has Been Discontinued. Item will be removed from survey and Entitlement returned.
Possible Shortages Through November
- W527 - Tony’s WG 4x6 Cheese Pizza
- W102 - Beef Meatballs
USDA Direct
Eastern Washington
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Frozen
- 100134 - Beef Crumbles
- 110554 - Turkey Breast Deli Short
- 110910 - Turkey Breast Smoked Short
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Dry
Western Washington
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Frozen
- 100119 - Turkey Taco Filling
- 100134 - Beef Crumbles
- 110080 - Chicken Roasted
- 110554 - Turkey Breast Deli Short
- 110910 - Turkey Breast Smoked Short
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Dry
- 100219 - Peaches, Sliced
- 100220 - Peaches, Diced
Please continue to check surplus for alternative options.
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OSPI Child Nutrition Services has formed a Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Team to assess our policies and procedures in Child Nutrition Services to identify any areas of racial or ethnic inequity. Following this investigatory process, we will develop and implement an action plan to address issues identified.
We invite Child Nutrition Program sponsoring organization administrators and operators and other organizations that support child nutrition and/or advocate for social justice to participate in a virtual focus group with us on August 25, 2020, from 2 – 4pm PT.
If you would like to participate, register here.
Can’t participate, but still want to provide input to this process? Complete this survey.
The Office of Food Safety and Institute of Child Nutrition recently completed a three-part webinar series on COVID-19 Food Safety. Webinar recordings and presentation materials are available online for a limited time at https://theicn.org/prevent
- The 2020 Safe Food Handler
- Managing Personnel During COVID-19
- Lessons Learned: The New Normal
The Chef Ann Foundation is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to changing the way we feed our kids. Our programs are focused on incorporating healthier, scratch-cooked food in schools by empowering school food professionals with our tools, resources, grants, and funding.
In this unprecedented time, healthy food and good nutrition are more important than ever. With the spotlight on school lunch programs that are feeding millions of children and families throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we are excited to announce the launch of two brand new websites, complete with:
- New resources for school food professionals, including information on COVID resources, central kitchens, and sustainable lunchrooms
- Updated content for parents, families, and advocates, including a revamped Parent Advocacy Toolkit
- An upcoming emergency feeding section
- Hundreds of school breakfast and lunch recipes, as well as a robust home recipes section
- A mobile-optimized and more user-friendly interface
Visit www.chefannfoundation.org and www.thelunchbox.org for more details.
USDA Trainings
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has great options for you to fulfill your staff training requirements.
You can go to https://professionalstandards.fns.usda.gov/ and find over 450 different free trainings?! Here are some great reasons to use this tool:
- All trainings are organized by the key area, training topic, and the specific learning objective according to USDA professional standards requirements.
- Trainings come in different formats to meet the needs of you and your staff - online, printed, recorded webinars.
- Trainings are from reliable sources.
Highlighted Trainings
Institute of Child Nutrition (ICN)
In addition to this resource, the Institute of Child Nutrition (ICN) is a federally-funded center dedicated to child nutrition education and training. You can use their e-learning portal for free!
Some highlighted courses you can assign to staff:
- Basic Culinary Math
- Meal Patterns
- Focus on the Customer
- Weights and Measures
- Nutrition 101
- A 6-part course on preparing healthy meals.
- CT1: Introduction
- CT2: Preparing Fruits, Vegetables, and Salads
- CT3: Preparing Entree Items
- CT4: Preparing Soups, Eggs, Dairy, & Sauces
- CT5: Preparing Breads and Baked Goods
- CT6: Using Seasonings
August 19
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Food Services Weekly Webinar- School Year 20-21 Re-Opening - Register Here
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August 31
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Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Applications Due in WINS
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