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May 2018
Between preparing healthy meals for America’s students, adhering to strict nutrition standards, navigating student food allergies, and offering service with a smile, school nutrition professionals are true heroes.
School Nutrition Employee Week is usually the first full week of May. However, we encourage you to celebrate and recognize food and nutrition staff all month long! Showcase the difference school nutrition professionals make for every child who comes through the cafeteria. Designating a “School Lunch Hero Day” provides the perfect opportunity to recognize the hardworking professionals in your school cafeterias.
We’d like to recognize the following “School Lunch Heroes” who were nominated by our Minnesota Department of Education review monitors during the 2018-19 school year. Congratulations on a job well done!
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Clearbrook Gonvick ISD:
Robin Proffit
Lancaster ISD:
Mendy Coffield
Heather Anderson
Darcie Keenan
Rothsay ISD:
Carol Nehk
Cindy Blair
Diane Haugrud
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The following updates were issued by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).
2018-19 Paid Lunch
Equity
For school year 2018-19, only School Food Authorities (SFAs)
with a negative balance in the nonprofit school food service account as of January
31, 2018, are required to establish prices for paid lunches
according to the Paid Lunch Equity (PLE) provision. All other SFAs are eligible
for an exemption from this requirement. This is a one-year exemption. It does
not eliminate the need for sound budgeting practices when determining paid
lunch prices. To access the USDA's PLE calculations for school year 2018-19, go
to MDE’s Meal
Pricing and Non-Program Foods webpage.
Correction to
2018-19 Renewal of Food Service Management Contract
The 2018-19 “meal equivalency factor” is $3.52 instead of
$3.64, as was stated on the 2018-19 Renewal of Food Service Management
Contract. The document has been corrected and is posted on the
MDE website. The meal equivalency factor is used to convert á la carte revenues
into the number of lunches to be paid under a food service management
contract.
Administrative
Review List for 2018-19 Available
The list of schools
receiving a School Nutrition Program review
in school
year 2018-19
is now available. Specific reviewer assignments will be completed this
summer and SFAs will be contacted in August with additional details. Although
schools are generally on a three-year review cycle, adjustments are made each
year for staffing purposes. SFAs may receive a review outside of the three-year
period.
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HealthierUS School
Challenge
Effective July 1, 2018, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service
will no longer be accepting applications for the HealthierUS School Challenge
Award Program. Applications submitted to the MDE by June 30, 2018, will be
reviewed for approval. Visit USDA’s
HUSSC webpage for more information. Please contact us with questions
related to the application process.
Community
Eligibility Provision – Applications Due June 30, 2018
The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) allows eligible
districts and schools in low-income areas to provide school lunch and breakfast
at no charge to all students using simplified meal counting and claiming
methods. A school or group of schools must have an identified student
population (ISP) of at least 40 percent on April 1, 2018, in order to be
eligible for CEP during school year 2018-19. A list of potentially eligible
sites, application instructions, and a variety of CEP resources is available on
the Community
Eligibility Provision webpage. As a
reminder, CEP applications must be submitted no later than June 30, 2018. For
more information on this important program, contact Nicole Podhora by email or phone
at 651-582-8490.
Unpaid Meal Debt
Survey
Thank you to all who participated in the Unpaid Meal Charges
survey in March. About 75 percent of public districts and charter schools
responded! While the data is still being analyzed, it is apparent that student
meal debt is a growing concern. Two-thirds of public school districts and
one-third of charter schools saw their student meal debt increase by at least
20 percent from 2015 to 2017. The final report will be released the end of May.
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School Nutrition Program Training
Details and registration information for
all training opportunities is available on the School
Nutrition Training webpage.
Tuesday @ 2:00 – School Year Wrap-Up
May 22, 2018
Join Deb Lukkonen, supervisor for School Nutrition Programs, for a wrap–up of the 2017-18 school year and forecast of the year to come.
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Culinary Training – Knife Skills, Reducing Sodium, Culinary Techniques
Free culinary training is available
through Minnesota’s USDA Team Nutrition Training Grant. The culinary training
will focus on the following topics: basic culinary techniques, knife skills,
tips for increasing vegetable subgroups, flavoring foods with less sodium, and
tips for using local produce. The upcoming series will occur at The Good Acre
in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Learn more on the SNP Training page Fresh Flavorful and Fun Culinary Training.
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Southwestern Minnesota Training Opportunity
School Lunch Recipe Exchange
May 22, 2018, 2:30-5 p.m.
Southwest West Central Service Cooperative
Join Erika Hixon, MDE Child Nutrition
specialist in Marshall, Minnesota for a school lunch recipe exchange. Erika
will review the basics of standardized recipes and provide an opportunity for
attendees to share recipes. Registration is limited.
School Lunch Scramble 2018 – June 19-20
This year’s School Lunch Scramble will be
held in four locations around the state: Thief River Falls, Fergus Falls,
Marshall and Roseville. Day one will focus on Financial Management for School
Nutrition Programs with a full-day session presented by trainers from the
Institute for Child Nutrition. Consider attending this session with your school
business manager. The topic for day two will be School Breakfast Round Up,
presented by our own Team Nutrition staff, in coordination with University of
Minnesota Extension trainers.
School Nutrition Back-to-School Essentials 2018 – August 14-15
This year’s training will be held in five
locations: Thief River Falls, Fergus Falls, Sartell, Marshall and Shoreview.
This two-day training will focus on essential content for school nutrition
program operations. The Free and Reduced-Price Process will be covered on
August 14, and Meal Service Basics will be the topic for August 15. If
you would like to connect via webinar to the August workshops for your local
school training, contact Donna Becker.
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New Food Buying Guide Available in Different Forms
The USDA has released the new digital
Food Buying Guide (FBG) in two versions: web-based and mobile (for iPhones or
Android). These new versions are interactive, with features that make it easier
to search for specific products, compare yields and create a favorite foods
list. The web-based version is available on USDA’s website.
The mobile version can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or the Google
Play Store. If you prefer to have a paper copy, the Food Buying Guide can be downloaded
as a PDF on the website. We recommend accessing and using one of these new
forms of the FBG because the crediting and yield information for several foods
has been updated.
School Breakfast Program
MDE is excited to announce new school
breakfast resources available online. Check out Breakfast
Encourages Students to Thrive (BEST) for parent handouts,
student resources, offer versus serve reminder cards, social media ideas and more!
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Bringing New Veggies to Osseo School District
The Hennepin County Statewide Health
Improvement Partnership (SHIP) teamed up with East African Services recently to
incorporate more diverse recipes within the Osseo School District and build
their capacity of culinary skills. The students had the opportunity to taste
test new recipes while the culinary staff at Osseo learned new culinary skills
from around the world. The district is proud of their Smarter Lunchroom
accomplishments to increase vegetable consumption and diversity in their school
foods. Learn more and see them in action in this
Spicing Up Veggies video!
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Words alone can’t express the loss of one
of our valued colleagues. Sharon Anderson passed away suddenly on April 17,
2018. In her 46 years of service at MDE, Sharon shared with us her deep program
knowledge. She was engaged and thoughtful as she helped so many sponsors of
school, child care and summer nutrition programs. Sharon will be deeply missed
by many and forever remembered.
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Did
you know the number of USDA Foods on the Foods Available List for
schools has nearly quadrupled since 1981? That list (picture above)
featured 54 commodities. The current list, now multicolored and
multiple pages, contains more than 200 fruits, vegetables (including red/orange
and dark green), meats, legumes, and grains. Visit our website to
check out the current list of USDA offered commodities.
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