The Child Nutrition and Food Distribution office began hosting “NDDPI Child Nutrition Office Hours” on Thursday, August 17th, from 9 am-10 am CST.
The Office Hours will be held every Tuesday and Thursday from 9 am-10 am CST through the month of September or until no longer necessary. The Office Hours are intended to answer questions about the new “State Free 200” application process. Please join the Teams Link, and the DPI Child Nutrition staff will be available to answer questions about calculating free/reduced applications or any questions about F/R Applications in general.
Join on your computer, mobile app or room device
During the 2023 Legislative Session, SB2284 included funding to expand the Federal Income Guidelines for students from families making up to 200% of the poverty guidelines to receive Breakfast and Lunch at no charge. If you did not attend one of the DPI Webinars in June, the details below contain information on how the new North Dakota Expanded Income Eligibility (State Free) impacts your Meal Programs and how to implement the changes for the upcoming school year. Please call our office at 701-328-2294 if you have any questions or need assistance making any of the changes.
Looking for more information on Direct Certification? We have created a document to help you determine student eligibility under Direct Certification.
Click here for the document: Direct Certification System for Determining Students Eligible for Free Meals at School
Click here for: Updates to Direct Certification Module in STARS Info Sheet
If you are interested in reviewing the updated Reimbursement Rates, you can find them on our website: SNP Reimbursement Rates & Pricing | North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (nd.gov)
Click HERE for a listing of the School Districts that are up for their NSLP Administrative Review during this School Year.
Master the Menu - Incentivized Training
We still have spots for School Nutrition Professionals to take part in our Team Nutrition Grant. This grant is to support building and retaining a strong school nutrition workforce that is empowered to provide nutritious meals that meet National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) meal requirements and weekly dietary specifications.
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Our 8-Hour Track: Meal Pattern Breakdown is still open to Food Service Staff (open to those that work in the kitchen and need to know about the meal pattern!)
- Receive $100 bonus if completed within 6 months
- Registration will be open until training has reached 650 participants!
- Attend a 7 hour 'Meal Pattern Breakdown' Course & pick one more hour* (example: Join a KCC starting in August or attend BTSW 2023) to complete your 8 hours.
- *Full listing of approved hours will be sent to attendees
- Register HERE
All attendees taking part in our Master the Menu Training need to attend a 7-hour Meal Pattern Breakdown Training Day (virtual or in-person). A few in-person sessions remain before the end of the year!
Sub-grants will also be available in two categories for SFA's that participate in our training activities. More information can be found here:
1) equipment purchase 'post'-training
2) personnel expense reimbursement, for costs associated with attending training
If you have questions about this training program, please reach out to Amy Nelson, Project Director at amylnelson@nd.gov or Emily Karel, Project Coordinator at ekarel@nd.gov
A carton of cold milk should be the easy part of school meal prep but school year 2023 seemed like it was closer to the ‘most frustrating.’ Our fingers are crossed that milk goes back to normal quality and delivery this year. Following is an update on where we are at with milk in North Dakota.
North Dakota, along with most other states is short of delivery drivers whether for milk or other food or the mail, oil and anything else that is delivered over the road. The ND Milk Marketing Board has assessed the situation with delivery drivers and has implemented a waiver to their milk delivery rules. As of Friday, August 11th, all major food distributors doing business in North Dakota have been approved to sell and deliver North Dakota milk to their customers. Schools should include their food distributor in the annual milk solicitation.
Here’s another option to help with the stress of milk delivery during North Dakota winters – shelf stable milk. Also known as UHT (Ultra High Temperature) milk, this dairy product is real cow’s milk that has been heated to at least 285F for a few seconds and immediately cooled to around 70F. This milk then can be stored on a shelf at room temperature for the entire school year. The 8 ounce cartons resemble a juice box therefore they take less storage space than gable-topped regular milk. Students would use a straw to drink from this carton.
This milk is more expensive but with less money in refrigerated storage, less milk to clean up from spills in the cafeteria or unsealed gable-tops in the cooler along with the peace of mind that the milk is available anytime, it may end up to be a close second in operational costs.
Contact your milk distributor for information on their shelf stable milk program. At least one milk processor has said they will buy back any milk left on a school kitchen shelf at the end of the year.
Add your breakfast time and a message about breakfast being free if the household qualifies at the free, reduced or new State Free eligibility. Include information about the school district’s free meal application as an easy marketing tool.
October 9-13, 2023 is a week to celebrate the importance of healthy school lunches! The theme for this year is 'Level Up with School Lunch', which links nutritious foods to video games.
Find more information and promotional materials here: National School Lunch Week - School Nutrition Association
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Remember this is an AFTER SCHOOL program. Snacks must be offered after the last class has ended for the day and students must eat them onsite with the opportunity to participate in an enrichment activity.
- Remember that two meal components must be offered and selected for a reimbursable snack and production records need to be filled out each day. Check out menu ideas in the production book.
- Remember that each staff member working with the snack part of the afterschool program must complete Civil Rights training each year. The training sheet is included in the production book.
- Remember to complete On-Site monitoring for the Afterschool Snack program within the first 4 weeks of the program operation. A second one is also required before the program ends for the year. Two copies of the monitoring form are included in the production book.
August has come, and gone, and back to school we go! I really enjoyed seeing and chatting with you at the Back-to-School Workshops this August. I hope you received the information and inspiration you need for another great school year. Here are some awesome links and information for the upcoming school year.
Mountain Plains Region Office/USDA Crunch Off
North Dakota’s dates are October 1-31, 2023. The goal is to celebrate National Farm to School Month and healthy eating habits. But you can still participate even if you don’t have a local source for your fresh produce. You can crunch in person or virtually.
Registration is open! Click the link below. Please register and hold your crunch off between October 1 and October 31, 2023. 2023 Mountain Plains Crunch Off (qualtrics.com)
You can download a toolkit document after you register too. It has great information in it and ideas to correspond with your Crunch Off event.
You can also see how fun the Crunch Off is with this kick-off video. You might even see a familiar face (Amy Nelson). https://youtu.be/TIxLPJVDPmk
USDA Farm to School Census
The 2023 Census will open the first week of October and it’s very important that you participate. A link is provided below to see the worksheet and sample questions so you can gather your information prior to receiving the survey. The Census closes at the end of December 2023. Even if you think you’re not doing anything in Farm to School please fill it out. We need that information too. For some, the census will only take 10 minutes to fill out, for others it might take 30 minutes. It all depends on the amount of Farm to School activities you are doing. Please contact me with any questions.
Farm to School Census Partner Resources | Food and Nutrition Service (usda.gov)
North Dakota Department of Agriculture
Have a wonderful school year and thank you for your commitment to feed healthy and delicious meals.
Amanda Olson, Farm to School Specialist
During the 2023 Legislative Session, HB 1494 was passed and goes into effect at the beginning of the school year 2023-24. The purpose of the law is to prevent the shaming of children who do not have the money to pay for a meal or whose family has unpaid meal debt, along with information about communicating with a student and/or the student’s parents when money is owed for meals taken by the student. All school districts that participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) or School Breakfast Program (SBP) must comply with this law.
Schools must implement this law immediately, however, they have the 2023-24 school year to adopt a school meal charge policy and publish the policy on the school district’s website.
The policy must ensure the following:
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The school cannot deny a reimbursable meal to any student unless a parent requests it in writing.
- A school cannot serve an ‘alternate meal’ to a student if they have a negative meal balance.
- A school cannot dispose of a reimbursable meal that has been served to the child.
- Schools cannot use any method that would stigmatize a child who lacks funds to pay for a reimbursable meal, such as tokens, stickers, stamps, or by placing the child’s name on a published list of persons with meal debt.
- A school cannot limit a student’s participation in any school activities, graduation ceremonies, field trips, athletics, activity clubs, or other extracurricular activities, or access to materials, technology, or other items provided to students due to unpaid meal balance.
- Schools cannot require a student to provide services or perform work to pay for school meal debt.
- Schools can contact a student’s parents or guardian directly regarding meal debt by using the schools’ regular notification system, or require the student to deliver a sealed letter addressed to the child’s parent or guardian. Any such communication must be done in a manner that does not stigmatize the child.
Please contact our office with any questions regarding the implementation of this bill.
Pre-K Meal Requirements & Farm to Child Nutrition Happenings!
Please join us on Tuesday, September 19, 2 p.m. CST.
- If you serve Pre-K Students in your buildings, this will be a great training for you! We will discuss the unique menu requirements for Pre-K students.
- Amanda Olson, our NDDPI Farm to School Specialist will join us to review exciting upcoming Farm to Child Nutrition celebrations.
This is a Microsoft Teams meeting, please use the link below to join the meeting.
Join on your computer or mobile app
Click here to join the meeting
Several school nutrition professionals have asked the Child Nutrition office if there would be an opportunity to update their ServSafe Food Safety certification. The ServSafe program is acceptable for the initial and update sanitation certification needed by the Foodservice Director and all Kitchen managers in the school meal program.
ServSafe is a much more rigorous class than our “Food Safety in Schools” as it covers scenarios from all other types of foodservices including restaurants, convenience stores and concession stands. A proctored, ‘closed book’ test with 100 questions must be successfully completed at the end of the course as well. The fee for the full 8-hour training, a reference book and the exam is $220 although there is a discount if you do not want the book or only want to try the exam without the training refresher.
Dates and locations of classes are:
ServSafe Certification Course and Exam:
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Tuesday, Sept 19 – Fargo ND – Preregistration due by August 31.
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Wednesday, Oct 11 – Spirit Lake Casino St. Michael, ND – Preregistration due by Sept 6.
- Tuesday, Oct 24 – Grand Forks
- Monday, November 6 – Bismarck
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Tuesday, November 14 – Grand Forks
Contact information: Deborah K Strand
National Food Safety Education Month begins September 1.
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The team at Partnership for Food Safety (www.fightbac.org) put together a fun Bingo contest of Food Safety activities that anyone, including school nutrition professionals, could play. Activities include watching specific webinars on food safety, submitting recipes that include food safety checks, and easy surveys or social media posts. Download your Bingo card and rules here: Food Safety BINGO | Partnership for Food Safety Education (fightbac.org) |
DPI Hosted five days of Back-to-School Workshops in Fargo, Grand Forks, Minot, and Mandan during the first two weeks of August. We enjoyed traveling around the state and meeting the 550 school nutrition professionals who attended the training. We certainly hope you found the information valuable and relevant to your daily work. Some of the highlights from our events were practice applications for the new “State Free” eligible students, Civil Rights training, Farm to School Updates, Portion Control, Costs, and documentation needed for Production Records. Please let us know if there is any training you are interested in receiving at future workshops. See you in 2024!
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