The DPI Child Nutrition Office is here to help with Submitting Claims and the new State Free Application process! We will continue our weekly “Virtual Office Hours” during the month of October. Keep an eye out for emails indicating the times available (reminders are sent weekly). Our next office ours are:
Tuesday, October 3rd at 2:00 p.m. CST and Thursday, October 5th at 9:00 a.m. CST
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“State Free 200” Application questions.
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Submitting Monthly Claims in ND Foods
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Answer HB 1494 Anti-Lunch Shaming questions.
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Verification
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Discuss any other topics about free/reduced applications.
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Discuss any other topics about school meal programs in general
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Marketing materials for free/reduced application process.
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 or the School Meal programs in general.
Join on your computer, mobile app or room device
Click here to join the meeting
NDDPI is holding a new quarterly webinar “Across the Desk”, intended for Food Service Directors, Recordkeepers, or Business Managers who handle administrative tasks for School Nutrition Programs. The first webinar will be on Tuesday, October 10th, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. CST. The agenda will include the Verification Collection Report, Farm to School Census, offering second helpings and adult meals. Please join at the Microsoft Teams Link.
Meeting ID: 236 561 459 870
Students who were eligible for free or reduced-price meals in SY 2022-23 can be carried over in their most recent status for 30 school days (do not count holidays or weekends).
Remember to change the students back to paid on the 31st day of school if they do not re-apply for free or reduced meals.
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The first step of Verification begins on October 1. On that date, you should count up the qualifying applications that you have received this year. Do not include any applications that were denied/over-income. Do not include any applications that were State Free Qualified or any applications that were on the Direct Certification list.
- Verify 3% of the qualifying applications. To find out how many applications that is, multiply the number of qualifying applications by .03 to get the number of applications you must verify. Any fraction needs to be rounded up, so if you get 1.05 applications, you must round the number up and verify two applications.
- Choose the application(s) to verify randomly from the Error Prone applications. Error-prone applications are those that have income within $100 of the monthly income eligibility or $1,200 of the annual income eligibility.
- Perform a confirmation review on the application to ensure the initial determination is correct. The confirmation review must be done by someone different than whoever made the initial decision. The confirming reviewer will sign the application on the ‘Confirming Official’ signature line of the application.
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The next step will be contacting the household by letter requesting the documents needed for verification of the income listed on the application. A due date of ten days must be included. If the household does not comply by the due date, at least one follow-up contact must be made with the household to obtain the documentation.
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The verification process ends on November 15th. If the household has not responded by then, the household is then notified that the benefits will be terminated in 10 days.
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A report of the verification process needs to be filed in NDFoods by December 15th. Even if no verification was conducted, a verification report still needs to be filed. This report will open in the NDFoods application on November 1st.
If you have questions about Verification, or just need a refresher, please join the “Across the Desk” webinar on October 10th at 2:00 p.m. CST. (Click here to join the meeting)
Next week - 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
Send us pictures or email us how your school celebrated National School Lunch Week for a chance to be featured in next month's newsletter! Email: dpicnfd@nd.gov with your Level Up with School Lunch activities!
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 in October - sign up now!
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
What used to be called Pride of Dakota Lunch Day is now called North Dakota Farm to School Lunch Day, where we can celebrate all of North Dakota’s amazing food. Whether it's products manufactured or grown in our state, there are plenty of ideas on how you can incorporate ND food into your lunch menu. If your school is celebrating North Dakota Farm to School Lunch Day on October 11, send your pictures to Amanda Olson amolson@nd.gov
There’s no formal registration, but if you’re planning something or need ideas, please reach out to Amanda with any questions. Please send pictures of your celebration! Some schools are celebrating with Cloverdale and Baker Boy, and others are serving local produce.
This link has free printable resources to celebrate Farm to School month in October (coloring sheets and more). Check it out for your Farm to School Month Celebration Farm to School Month
Harvest of the Month
Hopefully you have received your Harvest of the Month posters in the mail. October’s poster is focusing on celebrating National Farm to School Month with apples! And how fitting, you can register for your Crunch Off event and celebrate Farm to School Month with apples. Each month an email blast will be sent with extra resources and materials you can use to incorporate Harvest of the Month, which your school can use in a variety of educational ways.
If you didn’t receive your Harvest of the Month posters, please let Amanda Olson know.
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)
A toolkit is available for download after you register. It has great information 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
You can send pictures of your events to Amanda Olson.
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. Farm to School Census Partner Resources | Food and Nutrition Service (usda.gov)
Thank you, and if you have any questions, please contact me.
Amanda Olson
Farm to School Specialist
Child Nutrition and Food Distribution
amolson@nd.gov
701-328-0817
Upcoming Equipment Grants & Team Nutrition Subgrants
Please join us on Tuesday, October 17, 2 p.m. CST.
- If your SFA/District has taken part in our Team Nutrition "Master the Menu" trainings, then you are eligible to apply for our Subgrants. We will go through what is needed to apply, allowable costs and ideas for purchase.
- We have TWO Subgrants 1) personnel reimbursement for attending our training and 2) equipment for post training implementation.
- Our Child Nutrition & Food Distribution office has funds available for equipment grants again this year - we will walk through the application process and provide ideas of what to apply for.
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
The 2023 NSLP Equipment Grant is now available for application. There is almost $62,000 from USDA to share among the school kitchens operating the National School Lunch program this year. The application is available HERE!
Remember when applying for these dollars:
- The grant focuses on providing students healthier meals, improving food safety, and supporting the School Breakfast program.
- New, replacement or renovation projects will be considered.
- The minimum request for an individual item must be $1,000. No smallware purchase will be funded.
- The maximum request this year is $10,000. Projects may be more than $10,000, but must find other sources to cover the remaining cost.
- The equipment grant request will be denied if the school food service account has an excess fund balance.
The application must be received at the NDDPI-CNFD office by November 17th.
Also, remember that spelling, grammar and neatness count!
Good luck.
Are you looking for a creative way to promote your menus online? USDA has created a Team Nutrition School Lunch Menu e-poster. It is designed to display daily lunch menu options and remind students to eat a variety of foods while building a reimbursable meal. It can also help educate students on offer vs. serve. The fillable PDF file can be used for electronic message boards, webpages, and social media or can be printed and displayed in sign holders. You can find the link and information here Today's Lunch Poster | Food and Nutrition Service (usda.gov)
The text field at the top can be used for the date, school name, or additional statements that may be needed to help students build a reimbursable meal under OVS, such as “Choose at least 3 food groups. Take at least ½ cup of fruit and/or vegetable.”
The Culinary arm of the Institute of Child Nutrition is hosting a webinar called “Strategies for Training Staff ON USING KITCHEN EQUIPMENT.” Many of our school kitchen staff have never used commercial kitchen equipment. The two consultants presenting will discuss best practices on using new and existing kitchen equipment. They also want to highlight the importance of establishing policies and procedures for training staff annually on these expensive and what can be dangerous implements. This might also be an opportunity to get ideas on equipment that would be beneficial for your kitchen operation.
Join CICN on October 5th at 2 p.m. Central Time for Strategies for Training Staff ON USING KITCHEN EQUIPMENT. Registration for the live Zoom meeting is here: Webinar Registration - Zoom
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