May 5, 2022

This is an official communication between ODE CNP and Sponsors of NSLP

Inside This Issue

• Important Dates (new)
• Summer Meal Service - Intent to Participate Survey (repeat)
• SNP Updates (new)
• Establishing Area Eligibility for Summer Programs (new)
• Reconnecting with Summer Meals Toolkit (new)
• Charging Policy Reminder (new)
• Benefit Eligibility Date (new)
• Preparing Fueling Students for Success Initiatives Implementation (new)
• Community Eligibility Provision: Eligibility Lists (repeat)
  
• Revenue from Nonprogram Foods - Mandatory Reporting (repeat)
• Local School Wellness Policy Triennial Assessment Due Soon (repeat)
• Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program Update (new)
• Procurement Corner (new)
  
• Upcoming Newsletter Dates
• SNP Contacts

Important Dates

• May 15, 2022:  Revenue from Nonprogram Foods Certification Form due to state agency
• May 30, 2022:  March 2022 Claim due
• June 29, 2022: April 2022 Claim due
• June 30, 2022: State Match Funds transfer due
• June 30, 2022: NSLP/SBP/SSO waivers for School Year 2022 expire

Summer Meal Service - Intent to Participate Survey

As the Oregon Department of Education Child Nutrition Programs (ODE CNP) prepares for Summer SSO 2022, we request your help to determine the number of sponsors and sites that will be participating in the summer months. This will assist ODE CNP in providing preliminary data to the USDA on the number of potential sponsors and help develop targeted outreach strategies.

Please take a few minutes to answer the following survey questions. ODE CNP is aware that plans may change, therefore base your answers on the best information you have at this time for summer 2022. SURVEY

SNP Updates  Renewal 2022-2023 - Coming Soon The 2022-2023 renewal will be available soon in CNPweb. The renewal memo and instructions will come as a separate communication via email. Please ensure all contact information is up to date in CNPweb as the email list will be pulled from current 2022 information Free and Reduced Price Meal Income Guidelines Announced for 22-23 School Year Each year, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) announces income guidelines that are used to determine eligibility for free or reduced price meal benefits and the appeals process for families who disagree with the eligibility determination.   The guidelines are determined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Eligible sites that do not participate in the School Breakfast Program and/or National School Lunch Program may participate in the Special Milk Program, which offers free milk to eligible students using the below guidelines.  Under these federal programs, qualifying students receive meals or milk without charge, or may pay a reduced price of no more than 40 cents for lunch. The Oregon Legislature provides funding that eliminates the reduced price payment for School Breakfast and Lunch, therefore for the 2022-23 school year, breakfast and lunch will be accessible at no charge to students who qualify for reduced price meals.   Please see the Oregon Department of Education News Release for Free and Reduce Price Meal Income Guidelines Breakfast after the Bell (BAtB) Required and Exempt Eligible list has been posted! The Oregon Student Success Act (SSA) includes a requirement that school districts, public charter schools, and education service districts must make breakfast accessible to all students at no cost, after the start of the school day, at certain school sites.  The current, posted  SY 2022-23 Breakfast after the Bell Required Site list  shows which sites are required to provide Oregon Breakfast after the Bell and which sites are eligible for the exemption, and explains the methods used to make the determination for school year 2022-2023. Please visit our SNP Breakfast After the Bell web page  and Breakfast after the Bell At a Glance for more information regarding this requirement.

Establishing Area Eligibility for Summer Programs On April 11, 2022, USDA announced that in addition to using Census Data and Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Data, 2019 School Data for Free and Reduced-Price Eligibility could also be used to qualify Site Eligibility for Seamless Summer Option (SSO) sites in the absence of available of school data from 2020-2022. The 2019 Free and Reduced Price Eligibility of Oregon Public Schools List includes a list of all Oregon Schools and the Free and Reduced Price eligibility percentage from October 2019. The 2019 data can only be used this Fiscal Year (Summer 2022) and eligibility using this data can only be extended through June 30, 2025.  At this time, SSO Sponsors have 4 different ways to qualify a site to meet Site Eligibility Requirements of 50% or more Free and Reduced Price percentages.   Census Data using the FNS Area Eligibility Map. This is one of the preferred methods and will allow site eligibility to be extended for 5 years. Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) data for individual schools using the CEP Area Eligibility Data This method is also recommended, since it will also allow site eligibility to be extended for 5 years. School Data from School Year 2019-2020 using the 2019 Free and Reduced Price Eligibility (FRP) of Oregon Public Schools List. This method is a snapshot of October 2019 and will only allow site eligibility to be extended through June 30, 2025.  Sponsors must submit the 2019 Free and Reduced Price list to your assigned Child Nutrition Specialist with the qualifying school(s) highlighted. If the school is not located at a qualifying site, include an attendance boundary map or letter from the school district showing that the site is within the attendance boundary of the qualifying school. School Food Authorities – While this method is similar to #3, there are additional flexibilities where School Food Authorities may review all months within School Year 2019-2020 and use any qualifying month within that year.  To use this method, review the 2019-2020 monthly claim information for the site in question on the School Nutrition Programs section in CNPweb (purple puzzle piece). This method will only allow site eligibility to be extended through June 30, 2025. To qualify, Claim Eligibility Information for the month must have at least 50% Free and Reduced Price Eligible Students out of Total Eligible Students.  For more information on qualifying a site using this method, contact your assigned Child Nutrition Specialist.

Reconnecting with Summer Meals Communications Toolkit

The Oregon Department of Education Child Nutrition Programs director, Dustin Melton recently shared the communication below with all Superintendents. In an effort to make you aware of the  information and tools that are being shared with districts, please read the communication below. 

Dear Partners,

As promised a “Reconnecting with Summer Meals” Communication Toolkit is now available to help your staff communicate upcoming summer meal changes to families. This toolkit includes talking points, social media posts, signage and more.

As you know, the Federal waivers that allowed greater flexibility of many of the summer meal program requirements will expire this June. Because of this change, many districts may be unable to operate as many summer meal sites as they have the last two summers. Summer meal service will again be provided in congregate settings, encouraging children to stay and eat their meals with friends or participate in activities at the site. 

We ask that you use this toolkit to support your Nutrition Services staff as they prepare for the possibility of a reduced number of summer meal sites and help them inform your communities about these changes. 

Please connect with your staff this month to ensure they can utilize the toolkit and have the support needed to offer vital meal services this summer.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact your district’s assigned Child Nutrition Specialist, or me at dustin.melton@ode.oregon.gov

Thank you for all you do to support children and students in Oregon.

Charging Policy Reminder

Since March 2020 when schools closed due to the Pandemic, students  in most cases have not been charged for their meals.

Sponsors participating in Seamless Summer Option (SSO) during the 2021-2022 school year, are not collecting meal payments and charges  are not accumulating.

This article serves as  a reminder  that  organizations should review their charge policy in preparation for the next school year.

If you are one of the sponsors participating in National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs and counting your students in free, reduced-price and paid categories, it would be a good time to review your current charging policy.

As a reminder, USDA requires all School Food Authorities (SFA) to develop a meal charge policy. SFA’s have the discretion in developing the specifics of their policies.

USDA unpaid meal charges policy requirement

When writing your charge policy keep in mind the Oregon law ORS 327.537 known as the “lunching shaming ban” also needs to included. More detailed information can be found at Oregon HB 3454 "Lunch Shaming Ban" Q&A

Make plans to communicate your specific policy to your students, parents and community. This should include checking on what is written in student handbooks and posted on your website.

Benefit Eligibility Date When determining the eligibility date for free or reduced price meals, in accordance with the Eligibility Manual, SP 11-2014, and SP 51-2014 sponsors have some flexibility. Children are eligible for free or reduced price meal benefits on the date their eligibility is determined; however flexibility exists to allow sponsors to move the effective date of eligibility to an earlier date under certain circumstances. This applies to eligibility determined through applications and direct certification. To exercise this flexibility, the sponsor must submit to ODE CNP the Eligibility Effective Date Notification form located on CNPweb. When applying this flexibility the sponsor must: Do so consistently for all students across all sites and programs for all eligibility methods e.g. applications and direct certification. Have a method to document the effective date used. Refund any money paid by or on behalf of the student for reimbursable meals or milk during the covered period as described in SP 51-2014 . Notify ODE CNP by submitting the Eligibility Effective Date Notification Establishing the earliest possible eligibility date for student’s will not only benefit the student, but will also reduce unpaid meal charges to the school and serves as a great addition to the Local Meal Charge Policy.

Preparing for Fueling Students for Success Initiatives Implementation

Oregon Department Education School Nutrition Program expects full implementation of the Student Success Act on July 1^st of this year.

ODE has developed several resources to assist sponsors in successfully implementing the Fueling Students for Success school nutrition initiatives.

The Introduction to the Student Success Act in School Nutrition Programs training, provides an overview of the Student Success Act School Nutrition Program provisions including the Community Eligibility Provision Incentive Reimbursement Program, the Oregon Expanded Income Guidelines Reimbursement Program and Breakfast after the Bell.

The ODE SNP Student Success Act webpage  also has several new resources available including:

CEPI at A Glance

Oregon Expanded Income Guidelines Chart 2022-23

Oregon EIG At A Glance

Oregon EIG Application Tip Sheet

Oregon Breakfast after the Bell At a Glance

Community Eligibility Provision: Eligibility Lists

On April 15, 2022, ODE posted LEA district-wide and school-level CEP eligibility lists on the Special Provisions page. Per USDA requirements, state agencies are required to: notify LEAs of their district-wide eligibility status (April 15), and post the LEA district-wide and school-level lists on their website (May 1). The lists can be found under the “Current Program Operation Information” heading of the web page.

The lists are calculated by using the Period 1 ADM (October enrollment) and Direct Certification data for SY 2021-2022 to arrive at proxy data that can be used to estimate a site’s eligibility to participate in CEP or a district’s eligibility for district-wide participation. The lists will indicate which sites may be eligible (> 40% ISP) or near-eligible (> 30% ISP and < 40% ISP) to participate in CEP. LEAs with sites that fall into these categories are highly encouraged to go through the CEP election process.

This proxy data represents an estimation of the ISP and does not confirm CEP site eligibility.  Also, the proxy data does not include the number of other categorically eligible students who may impact site ISP such as: FDPIR, Homeless, Migrant, Foster, Runaway, Head Start and Oregon Pre-K. See Identified Student Percentage Explained.

If you already know your intent for CEP in SY 2022-23, or if your sites falls into one of the categories described above, please complete the online CEP Annual Evaluation survey. Currently, the deadline to submit the survey and submit your enrollment data is June 30, 2022.

If you would like further information about your options for the coming year, or support working through the CEP data, including information regarding the proxy reports, please contact  jon.mabale@ode.oregon.gov.

Revenue from Non-program Foods – Mandatory Reporting

ODE has released a guidance memo and resources for sponsor use when assessing Revenue from Non-program Foods.

• SY 2020-21 Revenue from Non-program Food and Adult Meal Prices Memo
• At A Glance Nonprogram Food Revenue 
• Nonprogram Food Proportion Worksheet 
• USDA Nonprogram Food Revenue Tool
• USDA Memo SP 20-2016 Revenue from Nonprogram Food - Requirements
• Revenue from Nonprogram Foods Certification Form SY 2020-21

The Memo explains the requirement and a link the Certification Form; The At A Glance provides additional information and resources; the Nonprogram Food Proportion Worksheet and the USDA Nonprogram Food Revenue Tool may be used to assess compliance; USDA Memo SP 20-2016 is the current USDA guidance for this program area; and the Revenue from Nonprogram Foods Certification Form SY 2020-21 is the reporting tool for the results.

Please utilize the resources to better understand this mandatory program requirement for Resource Management, and report results of the assessment to ODE CNP using the Certification Form by May 15, 2022.  These materials are posted on the ODE Financial Management webpage.

Local School Wellness Policy Triennial Assessment Due Soon Sponsors participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) are required to have a Local School Wellness Policy in place and conduct a triennial assessment. The USDA Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) finalized regulations found at 7 CFR 210.31 to create a framework and guidelines for written wellness policies established by sponsors. The final rule required sponsors to begin developing revised local school wellness policies during the 2016-2017 school year. The revised policy was to be in place by June 30, 2017. Based on the July 1, 2017 required implementation of the local school wellness policy regulations, the first triennial assessments were originally due on June 30, 2020, however, USDA released an initial waiver extending the deadline to June 30, 2021. An additional extension was granted via COVID-19: Child Nutrition Response #98 further delaying the deadline to June 30, 2022. With the June 30, 2022 fast approaching, here are some helpful reminders: Sponsors are required at least once every three years, to assess compliance with the policy and make the assessment results available to the public. The assessment must measure the implementation of the local school wellness policy, and include: The extent to which schools under the jurisdiction of the sponsor are in compliance with the local school wellness policy; The extent to which the sponsor’s school wellness policy compares to the model local school wellness policies; and A description of the progress made in attaining the goals of the local school wellness policy. Options and Tools for Conducting the Triennial Assessment Sponsors have flexibility in developing tools that will assess compliance with the specific components of their local school wellness policy. Sponsors in Oregon have the option to develop their own tool, use the WellSAT 3.0 tool, or to use a simplified tool created by ODE CNP. The Simplified Tools can be found on the Oregon Healthy Schools Webpage under Local School Wellness Policies. As a reminder, the Oregon Department of Education Child Nutrition Programs (ODE CNP) does not collect the triennial assessments, but will review the assessment and the local school wellness policy during the course of the administrative review process.

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) Update

Please continue to submit claims to FarmtoCNP@ode.oregon.gov according to the SY 2021-2022 FFVP timeline.  March 2022 claims are due Monday, May 30, 2022. 

Please complete the mandatory annual FFVP training before submitting your first FFVP claim.

If you use up your initial FFVP award funds, please contact us at FarmtoCNP@ode.oregon.gov to inquire about additional funds.

Procurement The ability to apply a geographical preference for local products applies only to unprocessed or minimally processed items. The geographic preference rule does not apply to any products that have been cooked, heated, canned or that have any additives or fillers. It can be applied to a wide array of products that meet the definition of unprocessed or minimally processed such as various forms of fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, poultry, dairy, eggs, and grains. Definitions for local vary widely depending on the unique geography and climate where a school is located and on the abundance of local food producers and manufacturers. Many schools define local as within a certain number of miles from the school, within the county, or within the state. Alternatively, definitions might include more than one state (i.e., Oregon, Washington, and California) or discrete parts of several states (i.e., specific counties in southwest Washington, northeast Oregon, and western Idaho). In addition, many schools use different definitions of local depending on the product or season. Also, please note that when applying geographic preference, origin is tied to the agricultural product, not the location of the respondent. Schools define what they mean by local. While many state and/or local governments have adopted definitions of local such as “within the state” or “within the county,” schools using a geographic preference when sourcing food for the federal school meal programs are under no obligation to adopt any definition for local that might be in existence in local areas in accordance with 2 CFR 200.319(c). The solicitation must clearly define and describe the evaluation criteria of award to be used and then ensure the method does not unreasonably limit free and open competition. For further information reference 7 CFR 210.21(g)(2), 2 CFR 200.319(c), and USDA memo SP 03-2013.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it.  Newsletters will be distributed during the following weeks. (During the summer, newsletters will be distributed once a month)  We encourage you to access previous newsletters on the School Nutrition Memos Page:

• Mid May 2022
• Beginning of June 2022

School Nutrition Program Contacts

Civil Rights