School Nutrition Programs (SNP) Renewal OPEN in NDFoods (as of 7/6/22)!
There is no year-end report for Direct Certification in STARS. The SY 21-22 data is maintained in STARS to serve as backup documentation for student eligibility.
New Direct Certifications determinations for SY 22-23 are effective July 1st. However, the student names won’t show up in STARS until the district turns on the Powerschool to STARS file transfer process for the new school year.
Additional Direct Certification information will be included in the August newsletter. Please contact our office at dpicnfd@nd.gov with any questions regarding Direct Certification.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 authorized P-EBT to extend through the summer of 2022 for school children eligible for free or reduced-price meals through NLSP.
All students enrolled at a school participating in USDA meal programs and who were eligible for free/reduced-price school meals or become eligible by August 19, 2022 are eligible for benefits. Each child will receive $391 of EBT benefits. Most children will receive their benefits on an EBT card in late July or early August. Children that become eligible during the Summer will receive their benefits in August or September.
DPI will use data submitted by districts into STARS to identify eligible students and to issue the benefits. The cards will be issued to each individual student and will be mailed to the student’s address listed in STARS.
Approximately 1,500 eligible students do not have an address on file. We ask that the districts assist our office in getting these cards out to the students. Our office will work with these districts to track the cards to ensure they are distributed correctly.
Our office will provide schools with communications to send out to their families encouraging them to apply for free or reduced-price meals so they can get the Summer P-EBT benefits. We anticipate that the P-EBT benefits will be an incentive for families to submit their applications early.
An informational Team meeting will be held in July after USDA has approved the State plan. An invitation will be sent out within the next 2 weeks.
For additional information regarding Summer P-EBT please contact Linda Schloer at lkschloer@nd.gov.
The Summer Food Service Program is up and running at many schools and non-profit sites this summer across North Dakota. Please share the following information on your websites and social media pages.
Go to www.fns.usda.gov/meals4kids to find meal sites in your area or text 914-342-7744.
Go to www.nokidhungry.org/find-free-meals and enter your address to find free, healthy meals being served by organizations in your community. Families can also find meal sites near them by texting the word FOOD to 877-877. Data and message rates may apply.
Summer 2022 Waivers:
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Summer 2022 Waivers Effective July 6, 2022:
- Nationwide Waiver to Allow Non-Congregate Feeding for Summer 2022 Operations
- Starting today, meals may be served as grab-and-go meals
- Nationwide Waiver to Allow Parents and Guardians to Pick Up Meals for Children for Summer 2022 Operations
- At this time, we are not sure if sponsors can offer multiple days’ worth of meals at one time. We are looking into this flexibility.
- Please only plan to offer one day worth of meals for now.
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Nationwide Waiver of Meal Service Time Restrictions for Summer 2022 Operations
- Ex. Breakfast and Lunch or Breakfast and Supper or Snack and Breakfast or Snack and Lunch or Snack and Supper
- Will allow sites to provide two different non-congregate meal services at the same time.
Summer 2022 Waivers Effective June 30, 2022:
- Nationwide Waiver to Extend Area Eligibility Waivers for Summer 2022 Operations
- This waiver allows all SFA’s and Non-profit organizations to operate the SFSP program at any site from July 1, 2022, to September 30, 2022.
- Nationwide Waiver to Allow Area Eligibility for Closed Enrolled Sites for Summer 2022 Operations
- North Dakota had already requested this state-specific waiver and received approval in May 2022
- Nationwide Waiver to Allow Summer Food Service Program Reimbursement Rates for the Seamless Summer Option in Summer 2022
- As of July 1, North Dakota will have no schools participating in SSO for summer meals.
If you are interested in participating in SFSP or are a current sponsor wanting to add additional sites, please contact Melissa Anderson (mdanderson@nd.gov) via email for further guidance.
SY 2022-2023 Waivers:
- Nationwide Waiver to Allow Fiscal Action Flexibility for Meal Pattern Violations Related to COVID-19 Supply Chain Disruptions Impacting School Meals in School Year 2022-2023
- Watch for further guidance from child nutrition staff regarding this particular waiver.
- If you have immediate questions, please contact our office dpicnfd@nd.gov
What we know about the Keep Kids Fed Act for SY 2022-23:
- Allows the USDA to issue nationwide meal pattern waivers for all programs through June 2023 due to supply chain issues.
- Allows State Agencies to not assess fiscal action for non-reimbursable meals found during an Administrative Review if due to supply chain issues.
- Increases the meal reimbursement rates for School Year 2022-2023, regardless of reimbursement category or eligibility determination, by an additional:
- 40 cents for each lunch served through the National School Lunch Program.
- 15 cents for each breakfast served through the School Breakfast Program.
- 10 cents for each meal served through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), including afterschool meals.
We do not know the reimbursement rates yet, they usually come out about July 27. At least we know there will be a 40 cent bump up on top of that rate for all lunches. You still need to collect free and reduced apps unless you are a CEP or Provision school.
We believe that there will be more waivers to come, so please watch your email closely for further guidance from our office.
Back to APPS!
We are back to needing households to fill out the Free & Reduced Price Meal Applications. Please visit our website: SNP Free & Reduced Price Information | North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (nd.gov) to access more information.
Remember, along with the application, the household should receive the “letter to households”, explaining the applications.
We also have information on: Income information for determining applications, letter of eligibility notification and verification processes.
Please reach out to our office at dpicnfd@nd.gov if you have any questions!
New Kitchen Manager Training
Running a school nutrition program requires much more than cooking food. This class is designed to teach new kitchen managers the details for meeting meal pattern requirements with menus, collecting the documentation for claiming meals as reimbursable and the knowing the other general requirements of the federal school meal programs. Individual help such as reviewing next year’s menus and making sure production records are filled out correctly will be available later in the afternoon if anyone is interested.
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Date
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Location
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Time
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Cost
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Link to Eventbrite Registration
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Monday,
July 18
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Bismarck State Capitol
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Class: 1 PM to 5 PM
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Pioneer Room
(A map will be sent)
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Free
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https://www.eventbrite.com/e/new-school-kitchen-manager-training-registration-329068501747
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Food Safety in Schools Sanitation Certification, In-person class from ICN
This is the INITIAL class. Those needing a 3 hour update can participate in Pre-conference at NDSNA, do the online A.B.C’s of Sanitation: NDDPI Kitchen Counter Conversations August - YouTube or wait for another opportunity in the fall.
All school kitchen managers are required to complete a Food safety and sanitation certification. Documentation of the certification is maintained in ND Foods. An update of at least 3 hours every 5 years is required to maintain the certification. At this time, the ND Dept of Health recognizes the ICN certification “Food Safety in Schools” as compliance for this requirement.
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Date
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Location
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Time
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Cost
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Link to Eventbrite Registration
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Tuesday, July 19
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Bismarck State Capitol
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Class: 8 AM to 5 PM
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Pioneer Room
(A map will be sent)
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Free; Lunch on your own
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https://www.eventbrite.com/e/food-safety-in-schools-8-hour-initial-sanitation-course-from-icn-registration-325826875957
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Link to Online Class: Food Safety in Schools, Free, Go at your own pace, in your own office, home or at the lake, maybe in your pajamas! - https://theicn.docebosaas.com/learn/course/external/view/elearning/21/FoodSafetyinSchools
Click “Enroll” in the blue banner on the top right, then “Register” on the bottom of the Sign in pop-up box. Create a username and password for your account. This account will save your certificate.
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NDDPI Child Nutrition and Food Distribution
Back to School Workshops 2022: REGISTRATION NOW AVAILABLE!
Register now for one of the NDDPI-Child Nutrition and Food Distribution workshops coming this summer. We will have Janelle Peterson as a speaker again. Each day will have the same content.
Fargo July 26; Hilton Garden Inn
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2022-fargo-july-26-btsw-0144-tickets-322657265567
Fargo July 27; Hilton Garden Inn
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2022-fargo-july-27-btsw-0144-tickets-322714336267
Bismarck August 2; Ramada Inn *Room Block still available until July 18th!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2022-bismarck-august-2-btsw-0145-tickets-322719591987
Bismarck August 3; Ramada Inn *Room Block still available until July 18th!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2022-bismarck-august-3-btsw-0145-tickets-322727355207
Minot August 4; The Grand International Inn *Room Block available until Aug 3rd!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2022-minot-august-4-btsw-0146-tickets-322730865707
Please plan to attend one of the workshop dates.
Due to increasing food prices, the registration fee will be $70.
REGISTER NOW!
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JUNE Kitchen Counter Conversations: RECORDING available!
The June Kitchen Counter Conversations has been recorded for your watching pleasure. Check out this and all the other topics under “Updates” on the home page of NDDPI’s CNFD webpage. Updates | North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (nd.gov)
June KCC – Hot Topics, Cool Ideas and Nice pics from our Recap of NDSNA 2022. Customer service was a key focus of this year’s state School Nutrition Association conference. Your CNFD team pointed out key take-aways from the conference including:
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Keynote speaker Kim Ratz helped us deal with challenges in ‘Always SOME-thing'; lead us through leadership styles in “People don’t leave jobs; They leave bosses; and finished with “Playing Nice in the Sandbox” conflict management.
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Jean Ronnei and Brenda Holen from ProTeam Advisors had us talking through 6 scenarios that happen in the kitchen every year from kids going on a field trip to teachers requesting supplies for their classroom parties. They did a second breakout entitled “Cafeteria Fixer Upper” pointing out inexpensive ways to declutter and brighten your work and serving space.
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Behavioral management in the cafeteria featured the Fargo Public Area Service Coordinators sharing strategies to meet sensory needs for students that may not be able to deal with the noise, smell, unfamiliar food, crowded space and general craziness of a school lunch.
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Bulk milk dispensers and growing herbs in the cafeteria kept our attention as we waited to join the food show. Char Herr from Midwest Dairy and Don Kinzler, NDSU Extension discussed the benefits of each topic for your students.
Find copies of all the presentations and handouts from the convention at www.northdakotasna.com/conference
We end the recording with a review of the food show fare – new products for next year’s menus and new ways to prepare old favorites. Enjoy!
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