Thanks to your feedback, we will be modifying our upcoming webinars! Stay tuned for more information during our 11/4 Weekly call.
Districts offering the National School Lunch Program (NSLP)/ School Breakfast Program (SBP), and Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) this fall are encouraged to join us for weekly webinars.
If you would like to join us on the last call of our current webinar series:
Register Here
Date: November 4, 2020
Time: 2 - 3 pm PT
If you are already registered for these webinars, you do not have to re-register.
Reminders
- A reminder email with your link to log into the webinar is sent 1 hour before the session starts.
- Weekly follow up emails with a copy of the slides are sent to everyone registered for the session, even if they did not attend.
- We will not be posting recordings to the CNS webpages due to rapidly changing information.
- Please keep an eye out in your inbox for these emails, if you do not see them in your inbox please check your SPAM box.
Miss last week? You can review last week's recording at this link.
|
SFSP Meal delivery may be beneficial to childcare centers if school age children are now in care all day due to COVID-19. Coordination between the school district and the childcare center needs to be a formal arrangement where the childcare center is either a “site” under the school district OR the childcare center is a “stop” on a meal delivery bus route. The process listed below must be followed for either one of these scenarios:
Childcare Center is a Site SFSP Meal Distribution
Meals are dropped off at the childcare site:
- Childcare staff must be trained by School District on SFSP requirements as they pertain to their role
- Childcare staff must take “Point of Service” meal count using the SFSP meal count form
- Meal count must be submitted to the school district
- Communication about meals received, leftovers on hand, and accurate meal count forecasting must occur regularly to ensure enough meals are delivered for each child AND to reduce food waste
- The childcare center cannot claim these meals for reimbursement
Childcare Center is a “stop” on the Meal Delivery Bus Route
Meals are distributed to children individually:
- School district staff would take “Point of Service” meal count as each meal is provided to a child
- The childcare center cannot claim these meals for reimbursement
Reminders
- Childcare centers are unable to pick-up meals on behalf of the children in their care.
- Under no circumstance may children receive more than the number of reimbursable meals allowed in each Program for which they are eligible.
Questions? Please contact your CNS Program Specialist.
The October claim deadline is Sunday, November 15, 2020. Here are a few tips and tricks for ensuring your monthly claim will pay on time:
- Sponsor Application, Site Applications, and Site Calendars must be in APPROVED status before entering claims into WINS.
- Meals claimed in excess of the CAP count for a site will result in a claim error. Double check your Average Daily Participation (ADP) prior to entering the claim.
-
SFSP sponsors with a FSMC/Vendor must make Average Daily Attendance (ADA) revisions prior to submitting monthly claims. Revised ADAs will not be approved for claims that go into error status due to meals claimed over the approved CAP.
- WINS edit checks the number of approved operating days for each site to the number of operating days entered in the site claim. If these numbers don’t match, the claim will go into error status.
-
School Sponsors entering their October Building Data with the October claim for reimbursement should enter zeroes (0) for the NSLP/ SBP meal counts. You will receive an error message - please ignore this error.
Other Claiming Reminders
If your claim goes into error status, select “Preview Errors” to determine the cause of the error and contact your Program Specialist. Payment process is on the 15th of each month and WINS logs sponsors out promptly at 5:00 pm PT. Claims will be unavailable until the reconciliation process is complete, usually within two business days.
Additional resources on filing the monthly claim for reimbursement can be found on the Claim, Fiscal Information, and Resources webpage.
On October 23, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released SP03-2021 Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program Operations for SY 2020-21 during COVID-19. This memo reviews FFVP questions and answers for the 20-21 SY.
Questions? Please contact Rachel Floyd at Rachel.floyd@k12.wa.us.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released SP01, CACFP01, SFSP01-21: Questions and Answers Relating to the Nationwide Wavier to Allow Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and Seamless Summer Option (SSO) operations through SY20-21 - Q&As #2. Question 4 of this guidance provides information regarding the annual carryover of Free and Reduced-Price (F/R) Meal Eligibility for school districts.
USDA is allowing a “pause” of the F/R eligibility carryover while districts operate Summer programs. Eligibility carryover allows children to maintain their prior school year eligibility status for up to 30 operating days into the next school year or until a new eligibility determination is made. This “pause” means that students who were eligible for free or reduced-price meals last school year will retain their status as long as your district has not received new eligibility information this year (via Direct Certification or a Meal Application). Students will maintain this eligibility until new eligibility is obtained or until NLSP operations resume.
IMPORTANT: The rollover “pause” is only applicable to districts operating SFSP or SSO. District operating National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, or Special Milk Program should follow normal processes.
This “pause” will result in the following mix of economic data and recommended actions for the 20-21 School Year:
- 20-21 Directly Certified Students through DC system – Continue to run DC monthly or more frequently.
- 20-21 Directly Certified Students through other sources – Continue to obtain data from other DC sources.
- 20-21 Eligible students via new free and reduced-price meal application – Continue to collect and process meal applications and/or Family Income Surveys.
- 19-20 Carryover students not captured in the above (the "pause") – Retain eligibility from SY 19-20.
We encourage districts to continue to collect and process meal applications as this data will provide a current picture of the economic impact to student households. In an effort to support districts, OSPI launched the It’s More Than a Meal Application and It’s More Than the Family Income Survey toolkits. These toolkits are designed to help districts promote the importance of families filling out and returning these forms. Materials are located on the OSPI Child Nutrition Services webpages.
Questions? Please contact your program specialist.
Due to some needed software updates, the Verification portion of WINS will open later than usual.
Verification is the process of confirming free and reduced-price meal eligibility based on an application. The verification process begins each year on October 1 and concludes November 15. Results of the verification process (Verification Summary Report) must be submitted to Child Nutrition Services by February 1, 2021.
Sponsors currently operating the NSLP and SBP who determine eligibility for meals using meal applications should move forward with the annual verification process for SY 20-21. We are waiting for further guidance from USDA on sponsors operating Summer Meal Programs in SY20-21.
Please review our Verification update for more resources and details about completing this process.
Updated Materials Now Available!
Updated materials are located under the 'Verification of Applications' dropdown on the NSLP Meal Applications and Verification webpage. Materials include:
- Entering the VSR in WINS Training
- Reference Sheets
- Timeline and Instruction Sheets
- Tools to help you complete Verification
- Letters for households in English and Spanish on the OSPI webpages. Additional languages are available on USDA's website.
Questions about the verification process? Please contact your program specialist.
The NSLP renewal application was due on 10/31. Applications submitted late may not be approved in time to receive reimbursement for meals for the first month of operation.
Last month, we released a CNS Update detailing important information regarding NSLP renewal for SY20-21.
Important Reminders
- You must submit your WINS application AND NSLP Meal Distribution Plan for your renewal application to be considered complete. We recommend to utilize the NSLP/SBP MDP Sponsor Checklist to help you meet each step. If you are operating SFSP or SSO, you do not need to complete the NSLP Meal Distribution Plan Survey.
- Review the applicable bulletins and addendum released for detailed renewal information.
-
Sponsors Who Contract Meals must have an approved FSMC Fact Sheet in WINS.
- Log into WINS.
- Go to the 'Info' tab.
- Select 'WINS Documentation and Job Aides'.
- Select the 'Completing Contract Fact Sheets in WINS' guide for step-by-step instructions.
- New for FY21 - You must complete the Contract Fact Sheet Module in WINS. The purpose of the fact sheet is to gather information about food service contracts.
- Instructions are available in WINS.
Questions? Please contact your program specialist.
The Family Income Survey helps to collect community economic demographic data when meal applications are not distributed. The Family Income Survey is updated for school year 2020-21 and is located on the CEP and Title 1, Part A webpage. The survey is translated into Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, Punjabi, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.
Who’s required to distribute the Family Income Survey?
Local education agencies (LEAs) participating in Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) or Provision 2 for both NSLP and SBP must distribute the Family Income Survey to students who attend a CEP or Provision 2 School.
REMINDER: You do not need to collect Family Income Surveys from students that are Directly Certified, as you already have their information!
Why is it important to distribute?
When free and reduced-price meal applications are not collected, the Family Income Survey is used to collect important income data. This data helps determine and maintain funding levels for significant state funding programs, mainly the Learning Assistance Program (LAP). The survey may also be used in determining eligibility for reduced fees in other programs such as running start and other district programs.
Does the “pause” in 30-Day Carryover apply to Family Income Surveys?
OSPI is allowing a “pause” of the Family Income Survey eligibility roll-over while districts operate Summer programs to be consistent with USDA flexibilities.
Are there any resources that can help me with the Family Income Survey?
Yes! Below are some resources that you can use to help get surveys returned and processed.
-
Sample Letter to Households templates are available to modify and use with the Family Income Survey. These letters explain to families why returning the survey is important.
-
A Best Practices document for collecting and promoting the survey is available. It contains information about the importance of the Survey and ways to increase return rates.
- We also have a helpful Timeline Resource, which identifies the important tasks and milestones around distributing, collecting, and processing the Family Income Survey.
-
We are finalizing the It's More Than the Family Income Survey toolkit. Resources coming soon include: email and robocall text, an editable flyer and social media graphic, as well as social media posts! Once available, these will be located on the CEP and Provision 2 webpage, under the Family Income Survey - Tools, Letter Templates, and Promotion Best Practices dropdown.
Important Reminder
The school food service account cannot be used to cover expenses related to printing, distributing, processing, or coding Family Income Surveys. Food service staff may be helpful in establishing a process in the district as they have experience processing meal applications. Should food service staff take on this task, staff time and expenses must be coded to an account other than food service.
Questions? Please contact your program specialist.
In an effort to support districts collecting school meal applications, OSPI launched the More Than a Meal Application toolkit. This toolkit is designed to help districts promote the importance of families filling out the Free and Reduced-Price Meal Application each year.
Materials are located on the Meal Application and Verification webpage, under the "It's More Than a Meal Application Toolkit" dropdown.
Please review our recent It's More Than A Meal Application Update for more details regarding available materials.
We recently shared information regarding the last training sessions for the PrimeroEdge Menu Planning Nutrient Analysis (MPNA) software. There's still time to use this product at no cost!
Please review our recent update for more information.
Our last training sessions will be:
- November 19 & 20
- The first quarter of 2021 (date TBD)
How to Sign Up
Visit our PrimeroEdge MPNA software website to request a demo to sign up for training. We will then get you signed up for the 2-day training session of your choice! But you might want to hurry - class space is limited to 25 participants!
Last year we transitioned to weekly CNS Newsletters to keep the number of emails from us to a minimum.
These program updates help keep you up-to-date on changes in your programs and share important mandatory information, as well as good to know information at the bottom of the update.
Please note: if there are urgent updates, those will still come as soon as possible in a separate email and will not wait until the following week to be sent out. Please keep your eye out!
To help you navigate the CNS Newsletter format, here are a few helpful tips:
1. Use the Table of Contents at the Beginning of the Newsletter
At the top of every newsletter there is a table of contents to give you an overview of what you MUST look at and what is "good to know" (see details below).
2. See "Update" at the Beginning?
Articles with the word Update at the beginning indicates that there is an important update in regards to State or USDA requirements. These are the articles you must review to stay in the loop about requirements.
3. FDP Corner
FDP Updates are now in one area! Please see important FDP updates at the end of each week's newsletter!
4. If you see "Reminder" at the Beginning of the Article
Reminders are previous "updates" that are still important, but were shared in previous newsletters.
5. How about "FYI"?
If you see an article starting with FYI, this is a good-to-know. These include resources, outside trainings and opportunities, grant opportunities from partner agencies, or other good-to-know type of items.
6. Highlights
CNS Highlights are articles highlighting good practices, Food, Body, and Mind Awardees, and other items.
7. Important Dates to Remember
You will find these at the bottom of every newsletter. They will include things like claim due dates, upcoming training and webinars, and other important dates.
We hope this is helpful! If you have any questions or comments about the format, please reach out to Samantha Brueske, Training and Communications Specialist.
The Institute of Child Nutrition (ICN) is the only federally funded national center dedicated to applied research, education and training, and technical assistance for child nutrition programs.
Get FREE Training - Visit theicn.org/vilt/
ICN is conducting Virtual Instructor-Led Training for anyone who would like to attend. The sessions are about 4 hours long and certificates are provided for participation. Sign up soon! There is a 25 person limit per class.
School Meal Program topics available:
-
Food Allergies for SN Managers and Staff
-
Food Safety Basics
-
Norovirus for Schools
-
Nutrition 101 (2-day sessions)
-
Foundations for Training Excellence: Basics
-
Training Culturally Diverse Groups
- Basic Culinary Math
The USDA Farm to School Grant Application for 2021 is now open, with proposals due January 8, 2021!
There’s a pool of up to $10 million nationwide and grants ranging from $50,000-$100,000 for planning or implementation of learning gardens, local foods in the child nutrition programs, agriculture and nutrition education, and more.
Webinars to Set You Up for Success
What is a Standardized Recipe?
A standardized recipe produces the same taste and number of servings each time it is prepared. The USDA recipe standardization process verifies recipe results at least three times, evaluates the recipes using taste tests and other methods, and adjusts the recipes for yield quantities of 50 and 100 servings.
Components of a Standardized Recipe
In addition to ingredients and preparation instructions, some of the important information on a USDA standardized recipe includes:
-
Crediting Information- Indicates how the recipe counts towards meal pattern requirements.
-
Marketing Guide- Gives the purchase quantities for ingredients that have a prepreparation loss or gain prior to use in a recipe. For example, a recipe that has 11 ounces of diced red peppers listed as an ingredient, may include information in the marketing guide showing that 14 ounces, or just under one pound, of fresh red bell peppers will trim and dice to 11 ounces.
-
Nutrition Information- Tells the nutrients per serving, including calories, saturated fat, and sodium.
-
Critical Control Points (CCPs)- Gives the time and temperature requirements for preparing, holding, serving, and storing safely.
Where Can Schools Find Standardized Recipes?
USDA standardized recipes are available at the Institute for Child Nutrition’s Child Nutrition Recipe Box. Wondering where to start? These are the five most downloaded school lunch recipes for the year:
- Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
- Chicken Alfredo With a Twist
- Pizza Burger
- Macaroni and Cheese
- Bean Burrito Bowl
December orders open Tuesday, November 3, and will close Tuesday, November 10, at 4pm.
Surplus orders will open Thursday, November 12, at 1pm for groups 1 - 3, and 2pm for all other groups. Surplus closes Friday, November 13, at 4pm.
For more information on your group number, please review the Order and Delivery Schedule.
Ordering
- To place an order - log-in to CNP Web.
- Your Food Distribution Application must be completed (including certified and submitted) before you can place an order.
- Ordering Instructions
- Reminder:
The Ordering and Receiving webpage has multiple resources to assist you in placing your ordering including; instructions, order and distribution schedule.
Important Reminders
-
Confirmation of USDA Foods
If you’re scheduled to receive a USDA Foods Delivery, you should receive an appointment confirmation from the carrier. Please remember to reply to the carrier confirming receipt of appointment.
-
To update or change your delivery contact person, please complete the Delivery Updates Form.
Questions? Please email the Food Distribution Office or call 360-725-6204.
|
|
November 4
|
SY20-21 Food Service Operations for NSLP and SFSP Sponsors Weekly Webinar - Register Here
|
|
November 10
|
December FDP Order Close
|
|
November 12-13
|
December FDP Surplus Orders Open
|
|
November 15
|
October Claims Due in WINS
|
|
