Montana Office of Public Instruction sent this bulletin at 04/21/2022 02:37 PM MDT
Get Ready for School Lunch Hero Day!
2022 is in full swing and so is the work that your amazing team of school nutrition employees. School Lunch Hero Day this year is Friday, May 6.
School Nutrition Meal Changes for Summer 2022 and School Year 2022-23
During the 2020-21 school year, school districts across Montana served a total of 16,871,992 meals to their students. Foodservice professionals from Absarokee to Zurich prepared an average of 69,626 healthy and delicious meals each school day.
Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued more than fifty waivers during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years to decrease the administrative burden of the school meal programs and increase reimbursement payments per meal.
Starting July 1, 2022, most waivers and additional funding per meal will end. The Montana Office of Public Instruction is helping school districts make the transition back to “normal” for the summer of 2022, and school year 2022-23.
Many federal education programs rely on accurate enrollment and free and reduced-price counts from districts. This is especially true for districts that receive Title I, Part A funds. Title I allocations for school year 2023-24 for most districts (all but the AAs) are determined by free and reduced-price counts and student enrollment. As parents have not had to fill out the applications for the past two school years, and there may be parents with students entering school for the first time, districts should consider outreach opportunities to inform communities of the need to return free and reduced-price applications to the district.
School year 2022-23 free and reduced-price school meal eligibility materials will be available to school districts beginning on July 1, 2022, at this webpage Meal Eligibility (mt.gov).
The Determining Official (DO) of participating districts can access and process online free and reduced-price school meal applications submitted through an online Free and Reduced Application (FRAPP) system. FRAPP is the parent portal through which household applications are submitted for free and reduced-price school meals. The parent portal can also be used by the school district to enter data from paper applications so that all applications are stored within the Direct Certification Application (DCA) DO Portal. To activate FRAPP for your district and to process FRAPP applications within DCA, please complete a one-time opt-in process. When you opt-in and publish your district’s personalized URL to parents via your district website or newsletter, the FRAPP will be available to your families.
Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a non-pricing meal option that benefits schools and students by improving student access to nutritious meals while reducing administrative requirements to qualify meal applications. Maximize direct certification counts in the Direct Certification Application (DCA) system. The DCA system automatically matches SNAP, TANF, FDPIR, and Foster children to student enrollment information (Homeless and Migrant information is carried over with the AIM student data). When comparable data sets do not match exactly, school staff can review potential matches to determine if they should be linked/matched. Periodically check your district’s potential match list and link matches to improve ISP. Conducting direct certification matching a minimum of three times per year is a program requirement. For more information Community Eligibility Provision (mt.gov).
The USDA has announced updates to the school meal program meal patterns called “transitional standards” for milk, whole grains, and sodium as a bridge from where we are now to where we are going. These standards will help school districts continue to build on the progress they have made in offering high-quality, nutritious school meals that support children’s health and development. Fact Sheet on Transitional Standards Final Rule
The new standards will begin in the 2022-23 school year and go through the 2023-24 school year. They will provide guidance to school districts as they plan their menus and include:
Students can be offered flavored, low-fat milk in addition to unflavored, low-fat milk and flavored or unflavored nonfat milk.
At least 80% of all grains served in school lunch and breakfast must be whole grain-rich (when a product is whole grain-rich, it contains at least 50% whole grains).
The weekly sodium limit for both school lunches and breakfasts will remain at the current Target 1 level during the 2022-23 school year. For the 2023-24 school year, the weekly sodium limit will decrease by 10 percent to the interim level of Target 1A.
Montana school districts continue to have difficulties with staff and product shortages, as well as food and labor cost increases. Supply Chain Assistance Funds were distributed to districts on March 25, 2022, to help them with the challenges. The funds can be used to purchase unprocessed and minimally processed domestic food such as fresh fruit, milk, cheese, frozen vegetables, and ground meat.
For more information, please contact Christine Emerson, MS, RD, Director of School Nutrition Programs at cemerson@mt.gov or 1-406-444-2502.
For more information on federal education programs, please contact Jack O’Connor, Federal Programs Director at joconnor2@mt.gov or 1-406-444-3083.
USDA is committed to providing nutrition assistance to hard-hit families across the country due to the coronavirus pandemic. In support of President Biden’s call to action on hunger, USDA announced that it is increasing the Pandemic EBT benefit by approximately 15 percent, providing more money for low-income families and millions of children missing meals due to school and child care closures.
This memorandum provides notice to CNP operators regarding Sections 740, 751, and 752 of Division A of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, enacted on March 15, 2022.
FNS encourages all state agencies administering the child nutrition programs to provide local program operators with promotional materials, including voter registration and non-partisan, non-campaign election information, to disseminate among voting-age program participants and their families.
The School Food Authority Survey on Supply Chain Disruptions was administered by FNS from November 8th through December 13th through a 20-minute online questionnaire. The survey was sent to all SFAs operating child nutrition programs to gather information on the scope of the supply chain disruptions and school meal operations during school year 2021-22.
This report examines the impact of using Medicaid data to directly certify students for free and reduced-price school meals in the NSLP and SBP in fifteen states in school year 2019-20. It assesses outcomes related to certification, participation, federal reimbursement, and state administrative costs in SY 2019-20 and over the course of the demonstration.
This Community Eligibility Provision Characteristics study is the first comprehensive study since CEP became available nationwide in SY 2014-15. The study was designed to provide USDA with information about the impact of CEP and includes both an implementation and impact component.
This report is the latest in a series on SNAP participation rates, which estimate the proportion of people eligible for benefits under federal income and asset rules to those who actually participate in the program. This report presents rates for FY 2019, comparing them to rates for FY 2016-19 and showing participation rates by household characteristics.
The OPI is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation, require an alternate format, or have questions concerning accessibility, contact the OPI ADA Coordinator, 406-444-3161, opiada@mt.gov, Relay Service: 711.
