Announcing New Director of Nutrition Program Services:

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) is pleased to announce that Emily Honer is the new Director of Nutrition Program Services (NPS) division following the retirement of Monica Herrera. Emily Honer has served as the supervisor of Business Operations and Support Services and the assistant director within the division. Find Emily's biography at the MDE Management Team webpage.

Renewal Applications for Program Year 2023-24

CACFP applications for Program Year 2024 are now available to submit online in the Cyber-Linked Interactive Child Nutrition System (CLiCS). Applications should be completed on or before September 8, 2023, to ensure adequate processing time prior to the new fiscal year. Be sure to update the contact information on both the sponsor and site applications.

Refer to the CACFP Application Renewal Instructions on the MDE Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) website for directions and log in to CLiCS to renew your applications.

Note for multi-site sponsors or sponsors of legally separate sites: All multi-site sponsors have their management plans uploaded into the CACFP Centers SharePoint site. For access to the SharePoint site, follow the SharePoint Online Access and Login Instructions to set up your access.

For assistance with questions, contact Nutrition Program Services using the Contact Us link or by phone at 651-582-8526 (local) or 1-800-366-8922 (Minnesota toll-free).

Tuesday@2: The Basics of Procuring Goods and Services for SNPs

Register for one or more of our monthly Tuesday@2 webinars for the 2023-24 school year, including this upcoming webinar covering The Basics of Procuring Goods and Services for SNPs on September 12, 2023, at 2 p.m. Topics will be added as they are finalized.

Verification Reporting School Year 2023–24 (SY 2023–24)

The Minnesota Free School Meals Program (MN-FSM) does not exempt School Food Authorities (SFAs) from the Verification Process. Only Residential Childcare Institutions (RCCIs) that do not have day school students and SFAs where all school sites are operating the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) are exempt from conducting verification. All SFAs must complete a portion of the verification report in CLiCS.

Please check the list below before starting the verification sampling process.

School Food Authorities Required to Use Three Percent Error-Prone Sampling Method

Required when choosing a sample of applications to verify in SY 2023–24 when non-response rate from their SY 2022–23 verification efforts is 20% or greater.

Error Prone Income Eligibility Guidelines SY 2023–24

For use when manually determining error-prone applications for SY 2023–24.

Verification Sample Selection

Step-by-step guide on how to select the appropriate verification sample.

Verification Process Timeline

Important dates related to the verification process.