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Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria
hit Texas, Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands this past
hurricane season. These record-breaking disasters affected millions of people.
In the aftermath of events like these, food is often one of the most immediate
needs. Many times, grocery stores are closed or destroyed, as are restaurants,
and food previously purchased by families is ruined or unavailable. Emergency food is essential when people find themselves suddenly
in need as a result of a hurricane, flood, or other emergency. The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is part of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Response Framework. State Distributing Agencies may provide inventories of USDA Foods to disaster relief agencies such as the Red Cross and
Salvation Army for congregate feeding when the President issues a disaster
declaration, and in certain other types of emergencies. USDA Foods intended for the National School
Lunch Program are most often used for congregate feeding. States can also release, with FNS approval, USDA Foods
for household distribution.
Each disaster response is unique, so advance preparation is essential. To help you prepare, we offer these best practices:
- Review and have a paper copy of the USDA Foods Disaster Manual readily available, and educate your organizations at the local level on availability of USDA Foods.
- Conduct annual training and networking with local disaster feeding organizations.
- Most importantly, maintain up-to-date 24/7 contact information for your State Emergency Support Function (ESF)-6 Mass Care Coordinator, ESF-11 Agriculture & Natural Resources Coordinator, School Food Service Directors, Food Bank representatives, and FNS Regional Office Disaster Coordinators.
When the disaster efforts have ended, the State Distributing Agency must report the number and location of sites where USDA Foods were used or distributed and the types and amounts of USDA Foods used on the FNS292A, Report of Commodity Distribution for Disaster Relief.
For more information, visit the Food Distribution Disaster Assistance page.
A Coastal Bend Food Bank volunteer helps a
Corpus Christi resident take food to her car. Families affected by Hurricane
Harvey received food packages containing nutritious, high-quality foods--100
percent grown and produced on farms in the U.S.--known as USDA Foods.
FNS and the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) are currently defining Business
Management Improvement (BMI) pilots for
implementation starting in Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 based on process areas
identified in the business case and implementation plan documents. Teams of FNS and AMS staff are attending
workshops to define pilot scope in terms of duration, products, geographic region,
automation or data requirements; stakeholder involvement; and metrics for pilot
evaluation.
Six
process area pilots are being considered:
- Product
Lifecycle Management (PLM) / SKU rationalization
- Long Term
Contracting
- Forecasting
(Top Down predictive modeling)
- Transportation
- Supplier
Management
- Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI) for supplier data exchange
These pilots were targeted because they can be better
defined and more easily managed with existing resources. Some are pre-requisites or supporting
activities for additional process area pilots. Work will continue, with the resources available, to include other
process area pilots in FY 2019.
Any questions or comments about the BMI may be directed
to CP-BPRINFO@ams.usda.gov.
The
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for State Distributing Agencies managing USDA
Foods for Child Nutrition Programs are now available via PartnerWeb. The SOPs
offer information on Web-Based Supply Chain Management (WBSCM) registration, WBSCM guidance, and WBSCM training
resources. In addition, the SOPs contain sections that will assist States with pre-planning,
catalog maintenance, ordering timeframes, order management, entitlement
information, and complaints. Updates to the SOPs will be made as processes
change in the management of USDA Foods.
On November 21,
the Food Distribution Division released a revised version of FD-107,
titled Donated Food Storage, Distribution, and Product Dating. This
memorandum provides clarification on policies and procedures for donated food
storage and distribution based on updated program regulations and current USDA
Food Safety and Inspection Service guidance. It also provides additional
guidance on first-in-first-out inventory management procedures; product dating
conventions including pack codes, date of pack, and manufacturing dates;
out-of-condition foods; foods with special handling requirements, such as dried
fruits, grains, and string cheese; and general resources for further
information on food safety and USDA Foods complaint procedures. The
policy memorandum can be found on the Food Distribution Policy page.
USDA
recently hosted two training events for new State Agency staff working with USDA
Foods in schools. These events, one in Dallas, Texas, on November 14-15 and the other in Alexandria, Virginia, on December 12-13, provided an introductory overview of USDA Foods in school
programs. Attendees participated in interactive sessions on a range of topics, including the history of USDA Foods, entitlement management, State standard operating
procedures, demand-driven ordering, processing, and responding to
disasters. Attendees were also given the opportunity to meet individually with USDA
staff to get more specific technical assistance.
In addition to these training events, the Food Distribution Division is currently planning webinars for 2018. These webinars
will cover topics related to all USDA Foods programs, so stay tuned for
those announcements! If you're interested in receiving information about our webinars, visit your GovDelivery Subscriber Preferences Page to review the topics you're signed up for and, if you're not yet on our webinar list, click on "Add Subscriptions" to select your additional topic(s) of interest:
- Webinars - Schools/Child Nutrition USDA Foods Programs
- Webinars - CSFP
- Webinars - TEFAP
- Webinars - FDPIR
USDA nutritionist Christina Riley shares recipe ideas at the training for new State Agency staff working with USDA Foods in schools in Dallas, Texas, in November.
On October 24 and 25, USDA held its annual
meeting with current and potential vendors for the USDA Foods program. This
meeting allows USDA staff to update
suppliers on new products and processes and provides the opportunity
for dialogue between USDA and industry partners. Across two days, participants
learned about new initiatives from the Food
and Nutrition Service (FNS) and Agricultural
Marketing Service (AMS), new products under development and changes to product
specifications, and topics specific to each industry. Attendees also heard updates
on the Business
Management Improvement (BMI) initiative. During BMI sessions, participants
broke out into small groups, where USDA staff facilitated discussions
on topics important to our industry partners. These discussions provided
valuable feedback that will help USDA as the BMI initiative continues.
New Navigation Features for WBSCM
The most recent Web-Based Supply Chain
Management (WBSCM) releases and the October software upgrade implemented
new or enhanced navigation features and resources to make WBSCM more
user-friendly. A summary of these
changes is available in the WBSCM document library at Help->Training->Job Aids->General Help->WBSCM Upgrade
Summary-October 2017.
New or enhanced navigation features include:
- Navigation
path (“breadcrumbs”) for the current transaction
- Navigation
buttons on menu bar: Back, Forward, History, and Favorites. History provides links to the 12 most
recently accessed transactions. Favorites allows users to create and
organize shortcuts to the transactions they use most frequently.
- Options button (formerly a non-descript
icon) now labeled
Additionally, the following resources have been added to
improve the user experience with WBSCM:
- Important news
and reminders in on-screen announcement banner
- New video
tutorial available in WBSCM to
demonstrate system navigation and point out helpful tools and resources
- Descriptions
and guidance added to the Help tabs
WBSCM releases are implemented each month, and all
users are encouraged to review the latest Release Notes for system changes that
impact them. This information can be
found in the WBSCM document library at Help->Training->Release
Notes->Release Notes.
If you have questions about these changes, contact the WBSCM Service Desk or call
(877) 927-2648.
Creating New WBSCM Users for Suborganizations (RAs
& Co-Ops)
In addition to setting up new Recipient Agency (RA) or
Co-Op organizations in Web-Based
Supply Chain Management (WBSCM), the User/Organization Administrator for
the State Distributing Agency (SDA) or Indian Tribal Organization (ITO) can
also create new users for these suborganizations through manual entry (Admin tab -> Manage Users tab -> Manage Users) or through the upload data file
for new RA organizations (Admin tab -> Organization Maintenance tab -> Upload New RA Organizations).
Prior to the December WBSCM release, new users created
for suborganizations by the SDA/ITO User/Organization Administrators could only
assign the administrator user
security roles. After the new user
was created, a User Administrator from the suborganization then had to assign additional
roles to allow the new user--including themselves, if applicable--to access
reports and order management transactions.
Following the December 2017 WBSCM release, when setting
up a new user for a suborganization, SDA and ITO User/Organization
Administrators can now select from all roles available to the new user’s
organization.
Guidance for creating a new user in WBSCM can be found
in the WBSCM document library at Help->Training->Work
Instructions->External->Fulfillment->Domestic->Create User.
If you have questions about these changes, contact the WBSCM Service Desk or call
(877) 927-2648.
USDA staff will be participating in these upcoming meetings in 2018. We look forward to the opportunity to meet you and hope to see you there!
February 25-27: National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference in Washington, DC, co-sponsored by Feeding America and the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) in cooperation with the National CACFP (Child and Adult Care Food Program) Forum.
March 4-6: School Nutrition Association (SNA) Legislative
Action Conference in Washington, DC.
April 29 - May 2: American Commodity Distribution Association (ACDA) Annual National Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
May 20-23: National Commodity Supplemental Food Program Association (NCSFPA) Annual Conference in Fort Myers, Florida.
June 11-15: National Association of Food Distribution Programs on Indian Reservations (NAFDPIR) Annual Conference in Reno, Nevada.
 Here's how to sign up for these updates via GovDelivery:
1. Go to the Food Distribution website.
2. Click on the red envelope on the row of social media icons on the top right of the page.
3. Enter your email address and click "Submit."
4. Check the boxes to select your topics of interest. For these e-letters, scroll down to the Food Distribution category and click the plus sign to the left of the check box to expand the list and view all the sub-categories. Check these sub-categories to receive the corresponding e-letters:
*USDA Foods --> receive all "USDA Foods from Farm to Plate" general + program-specific e-letters
*Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) --> receive "Household Highlights" e-letter
*The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) --> receive "Household Highlights" e-letter
*Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) --> receive "FDPIR Connection" e-letter
*Schools/Child Nutrition Commodity Programs --> receive "Spotlight on Schools" e-letter
5. Update your subscription preferences any time by following the above steps or clicking on the Subscriber Preferences Page link at the bottom of any of the e-letter email messages you receive from GovDelivery. Questions? Contact us at USDAFoods@fns.usda.gov
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