Upcoming 2024 USDA/State Agency Meeting
The Institute of Child Nutrition (ICN) is hosting the 2024 USDA/State Agency Meeting from December 10-12, at the Hyatt Regency Dallas. This event brings together ICN, USDA, and state agencies from across the nation to focus on child nutrition programs. Representatives from USDA Foods in Schools will attend and present on resources to utilize USDA Foods in school meals. For more details, visit ICN’s website.
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Grains Galore: Wholesome Choices for Healthy School Meals!
Grains are an important component of school meals and the variety available on the USDA Foods in Schools Foods Available List can help you provide many options for students, while also meeting whole grain requirements. There are two main types of grains available: whole grains and refined grains. Whole grains are packed with nutrients like B vitamins, iron, magnesium, and selenium, which are important for strong bones and a healthy immune system. Serving whole grains also helps students get enough fiber, which aids in digestion and can lower the risk of heart disease.
With your USDA Foods entitlement, you can purchase various grains like flour, rolled oats, pancakes, pasta, rice, and tortillas. Bulk flour can also be processed into other foods like pizza crust, muffins, or pita bread! To help meet whole grain meal pattern requirements, use Quick Cooking Rolled Oats (100465) or Whole Grain Pancakes (110393) on your breakfast menu. For lunch, serve a whole grain-rich pasta like Penne (110520), Rotini (110504), or Spaghetti (110506) with a popular sauce and protein. Brown Rice (101031 and 100500) can also be a great base for stir fry or fried rice dishes.
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Dishing Up Dairy
Through the USDA Foods in Schools Foods Available List, states and schools have access to dairy foods, including yogurt and cheese, which credit as meat alternates in USDA child nutrition programs. Foods from the dairy group provide important nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin D, that help build and maintain strong bones and teeth. Additionally, USDA Foods yogurt products already meet the product-based added sugars limit that will be implemented by school year 2025-26. All four yogurt products contain no more than 12 grams of added sugars per 6 ounces (2 grams of added sugar per ounce).
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Food Distribution Programs: Improving Access and Parity Final Rule Updates to USDA Foods Disaster Response
On October 31, 2024, the Food Distribution Programs: Improving Access and Parity Final Rule was published in the Federal Register. This rule makes regulatory updates to USDA’s Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), and USDA Foods in Disasters Program. The rule contains several big-picture changes and a number of minor technical changes to the use of USDA Foods in disasters, emergencies, and situations of distress. Major changes include:
- Removing a longstanding regulatory restriction on the simultaneous provision of USDA Foods Disaster Household Distributions (DHDs) and Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP) benefits.
- Revising reporting requirements for State distributing agencies operating DHDs. The revisions will improve USDA’s and State distributing agencies’ understanding of the quantity and types of USDA Foods available for emergency response, and also facilitate USDA’s efforts to replace USDA Foods used in disaster response.
To learn more about the major changes that the final rule makes, you can visit our webpage, which includes a summary of changes to each Food Distribution program, frequently asked questions about the rule, and other resources to support implementation.
Recent WBSCM Updates
As part of the July release, WBSCM account permissions were adjusted to ensure goods/shipment receipts for direct deliveries could only be entered by users at the State organization or the delivery location (SHIP-TO). Receipting at the Recipient Agency (RA) level was causing issues downstream in the procurement processes. With the August release, this update was adjusted to allow RA users to enter a goods receipt in WBSCM when the shipment of the entire truckload or shipment of the entire part of a Multi-Stop is being delivered to the Recipient Agency’s location.
The October 2024 WBSCM release included the following updates:
- New functionality for State agencies to upload redistributions in bulk and mass create redistribution sales documents against the requisition items.
The Upload Redistributions screen after a file has been successfully uploaded.
- A new Budget Entitlement upload file with enhancements is now available to FNS and State agencies to upload budget entitlements for various business partners and recipient agencies.
- New functionality for FNS to maintain a Ship-To Category and Sub-Category for Ship-To partners and maintain associated Contract End Date for State-Contracted Warehouse Ship-To partners in WBSCM. In a future release, these fields will become available in updated reports and viewable by State agency users.
For questions about WBSCM, please contact the WBSCM Service Desk or call (877) 927-2648.
All monthly changes are documented in the Release Notes, which may be accessed in WBSCM at Help > Training > Release Notes.
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