Weekly School Nutrition Newsletter

Indiana Department of Education sent this bulletin at 11/14/2019 12:00 PM EST

11/14/2019

Dear Food Service Contact,

This email provides news for schools concerning the Child Nutrition Programs from the USDA and the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE). If you are the food service contact for your school or corporation, it is your responsibility to relay important information provided to you about the Child Nutrition Programs to other staff members.

Verification Reminders

  • Don’t forget! The verification process should be completed by Friday, November 15.
  • The Verification Summary Report (VSR) becomes available after the October claim for reimbursement has been filed. The report is due Wednesday, January 15, 2020.
  • If a household indicates that they will not be providing verification documentation and want to decline benefits, document the conversation and send a notification letter to change benefits to paid in 10 calendar days. This will be marked as “responded changed to paid” on the VSR.  
  • If requesting additional verification documentation from a household by a certain date and the household did not respond, document and send a notification letter to change benefits to paid in 10 calendar days. This will be marked as "did not respond changed to paid" on the VSR.
  • If a student was found on the direct certification match list or in a direct certification look-up after applications were pulled for verification (after October 1), continue to count that application for verification. If the application was direct certified before October 1, then do not count that application for verification and replace it with another one.
  • Need any assistance? Check out the verification resources:

Community Meals Served at School During the School Day

  • Inviting the community into the schools during this holiday period is a great way to showcase all of the improvements being made in school lunches. However, it should be noted that providing community meals for free is not an allowable expenditure from the food service account.
  • The value of the meals, equivalent to the adult meal price or greater, must be collected and deposited into the food service account from a non-federal source.
  • School personnel are to be reminded that the school nutrition program is funded to serve enrolled students. All other expenditures related to serving meals must be funded through other outside sources, such as the general fund, community organizations, or donations.
  • Questions? Contact your field specialist.

Register for Orientation to School Nutrition Management

  • IDOE, in partnership with the Institute of Child Nutrition, will be providing Orientation to School Nutrition Management December 2-6. 
    • The target audience of this training includes school nutrition program staff with fewer than five years of experience as a director or those on track to become a director.
    • This training will provide an overview of many topics within school nutrition. 
    • This 4.5 day training will take place in Shelbyville, Indiana on Monday, December 2, through Thursday, December 5, from 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and Friday, December 6, from 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ET.
    • Click here for a flyer with more information.
    • Click here to register for this training.

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Please do not reply directly to this email. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this email, please contact Allie Caito-Sipe at acaito@doe.in.gov, call (317) 232-0849, or toll-free at 1-800-537-1142 ext. 20849, or contact Ashley Heller at aheller@doe.in.gov, call (317) 232-0544, or toll-free at 1-800-537-1142 ext. 20544.