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Each section contains updates relevant to those nutrition programs. You can jump to the specific section by clicking the link.
This new section of the bulletin highlights documents that are new or have been recently updated on the Food and Nutrition webpages of the Minnesota Department of Education website.
New documents:
Updated document:
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Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option Question and Answer Memo
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) released a new memo about operating the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) or Seamless Summer Option (SSO) through December 31, 2020, or earlier if funding is exhausted. This memo contains questions and answers addressing current child nutrition program options, application requirements, retroactive reimbursement, and more. For more information, please read Questions and Answers Relating to the Nationwide Waiver to Allow SFSP and SSO through December 2020.
Farm to School Virtual Field Trips
October is National Farm to School Month—a time to celebrate connections between students and local food and show gratitude to our school nutrition and farmer heroes.
Minnesota Ag in the Classroom is partnering with Midwest Dairy to host a series of free Virtual Field Trips in October. In-person classrooms, as well as students distance learning, are invited to join us to meet farmers and tour farms that provide hot dogs, lettuce, apples, vegetables, milk and more to Minnesota school cafeterias. Integrate your farm to school menu into classroom education by featuring the local food highlighted in the weekly tours. View more information and register for the Farm to School Virtual Field Trip Series.
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CACFP Basic Training Webinars in October
The CACFP Basic Training Webinars Part 1 and 2 are for child care centers, adult care centers, emergency shelters and outside school hours care centers. This webinar series targets new staff, such as center directors, food production staff and staff with CACFP responsibilities. Each session requires 30 minutes of prework that will be emailed two weeks prior to the webinar.
Topics: VCA, HIS forms, ABC’s, Meal Patterns, Meal Service and Meal Counts, Crediting, Menus
Topics: Food Production Records, Portion Menus, Farm to ECE, Special Diets, Recordkeeping, Training, Procurement
CACFP Interactive Video Trainings
Brighton Video Trainings are still available through September 30, 2020. Each module is about 60 minutes and credits as one hour through the Minnesota Center for Professional Development for Early Care and Education (Achieve/Develop system). If you started a module and are able to complete it by September 30, please log in and continue the training module where you left off. The modules currently available are:
- Nutrition Basics for Better CACFP Menus (MDE-502)
- A CACFP Meal Pattern Guide (MDE-505)
- A CACFP Infant Meal Pattern Guide (MDE-506)
- All Aboard the Whole Grain Express! (MDE-515)
- Food Preparation Techniques and CACFP Menu Planning (MDE-516)
CACFP Training Resource
USDA’s Team Nutrition initiative released a fun bingo-style training game to use for meal pattern training on the CACFP milk requirements. This resource is available online in English and Spanish, and can be adapted for use with virtual trainings. View the CACFP Trainer’s Tool: Serving Milk Bingo.
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SFSP Nationwide Waiver
USDA FNS released a new nationwide waiver providing additional SFSP flexibilities. Under this waiver, sponsors may be allowed reimbursement for meals served prior to receiving MDE approval to operate SFSP. Additionally, FNS waives the requirement for MDE to conduct pre-approval visits of SFSP sponsors. For more information, please review the Nationwide Waiver to Allow Reimbursement for Meals Served Prior to Notification of Approval and Provide Flexibility for Pre-Approval Visits in the SFSP.
Tuesdays @ 2 Webinars
Join school nutrition staff for a training webinar every Tuesday at 2 p.m. Read session descriptions and register for Tuesdays @ 2 webinars.
- Farm to School in Minnesota (September 22, 2020)
- Verification 100 for School Nutrition Programs (September 29, 2020)
- Verification 200 for School Nutrition Programs (October 6, 2020)
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Emergency Early Care and Education Wrap-Around Grant
The Northland Foundation is partnering with the Minnesota Department of Education on behalf of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund. This special grant program will help fund emergency wrap-around early care and education services for northeastern Minnesota children ages 0-8 from under-served populations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The deadline to apply for the first round of funding is September 25, 2020. Eligible organizations must provide services in any of the seven counties of Northeast Minnesota, or five Tribal Nations that share the same geography. A second funding round is planned for January 2021. For more information, view the Northland Foundation Grants webpage.
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