Promotion at the start of summer is key to maximizing awareness in your community. Take 2 minutes to place an order for FREE yard signs, flyers, stickers, bookmarks, door hangers, and more TODAY to ensure quick delivery!  

2024 Free Summer Meals Promotional Materials Request Form  

To advertise and promote Summer Meal Sites, you can provide the following information to your communities:   

If safety for staff and families is a concern and you plan to discontinue meal service, or the meal service will take place at an alternate site, plans must be in place for how the community will be notified. Sponsors are encouraged to plan for emergency situations in advance to ensure a rapid response. 

If you plan on using a backup site that is not already included in your SFSP application, reach out to the Summer Meals Team and request the site be added in WINS. Backup sites must meet SFSP area-eligibility requirements. 

Questions? Email the Summer Meals Team. 

OSPI and USDA are aware that concerns regarding physical safety at Summer Meal Program sites have increased in recent years, with sponsors indicating a need for additional technical assistance and Program flexibilities in this area.  

USDA is now allowing submission of safety and security waivers to allow for non-congregate feeding at SFSP sites experiencing any real-time safety and security events. If you experience any security and/or safety issues during SFSP operations, complete a FY24 SFSP/SSO Waiver Submission Survey. The survey has directions on the documentation and information needed to apply.  

Please note that these waivers will be provided on a case-by-case basis and issued per site. No blanket sponsor, county, city, or community waivers will be considered. The approval will be issued by USDA and not OSPI, which means a lengthier review period.  

The safety of sponsors, staff and participants is our priority. If you need additional assistance or need help with your waiver submission, please reach out to your assigned SFSP/SSO specialist.  

Questions? Email the Summer Meals Team. 

Using “share tables” can encourage children to eat nutritious foods and help reduce food waste in the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).  

About Share Tables 

Share tables are tables or stations where children may return whole food or beverage items they choose not to eat, which can then be available to other children.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) policy memo SFSP 15-2016 provides information about share tables. This memo reviews food safety requirements program operators must follow when including share tables in their meal service. 

Share tables allow food or beverage items to be reused in several ways, examples include: 

• Children may take an additional helping of a food or beverage item from the share table at no cost; 

• Items left on the share table may be served and claimed for reimbursement during another meal service. Example: During an afterschool program with leftovers from a school lunch; and/or 

• Items may be donated to a non-profit organization, such as a community food bank, homeless shelter, or other non-profit charitable organization. See SP 11-2012, SFSP 07-2012: Guidance on the Food Donation Program in Child Nutrition Programs. 

Adults are not allowed to eat food left at share tables, and share tables are not allowed to be used for programs outside of child nutrition, with the exception of food donation outlined in SP 11-2012, SFSP 07-2012. 

SFSP Food Safety and Share Table Resources  

• The revised Washington State Retail Food Code—Page 40 
• Running A Successful Share Table (ospi.k12.wa.us) – handout for sponsors to use!  
• Share Tables Reference Sheet 
• USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Food Safety Resources  
• USDA Professional Standards webpage 
• USDA's Taking Action to Build Food-Safe Schools webpage—Sections on equipment, food safety, and meal service options 
• FoodSafety.gov—FoodKeeper App 
• USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service Food Safety webpage 
• The John C. Stalker Institute of Food and Nutrition Resource Center 

Online Trainings and Other Resources  

• The Institute of Child Nutrition (ICN) Food Safety Resources 
• ICN's iLearn Platform 
  • Best Practices in SFSP – Cleaning and Sanitizing 
  • Best Practices in SFSP – Personal Hygiene 
  • Best Practices in SFSP – Time and Temperature 

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Food Safety webpage 

Questions? Please contact your local health department for any additional share table requirements. 

Now that the application deadline has passed and some of you have started operating, there are some reminders we want to share! 

Claiming

• Keep an eye on your participation to make sure you can adjust your Average Daily Attendance (ADA) in WINS prior to submitting your claim. Remember, sponsors who use an FSMC/Vendor must adjust ADAs before the claim goes into error status. 

Meal Service 

• Any changes to mealtimes and/or service days must be approved by OSPI. Maintaining continuous communication with site staff is essential to ensuring all changes are reported in a timely manner. 

• Make sure each meal service takes place within the approved WINS mealtime. 

• If any of your sites are going on a field trip, submit a Field Trip Notification no later than the day before the field trip. 

Food Safety is Everyone's Responsibility! 

• Use USDA's SFSP Nutrition Guide for food safety requirements. Use pages 74–94 for a Food Safety Checklist. 

• Make sure to have a thermometer on hand to take temperature checks (wipe down your thermometer with alcohol swabs between checks). 

• Use this simple food safety guide at your sites. 

• Use ICN's Food Safety webpage for printable resources. 

Staff Changes 

• All site supervisors, staff, and volunteers must be trained before they assist with SFSP operations. If you have a new staff supervisor or staff member who is not listed in WINS, please update your site application(s) as soon as possible! 

• Staff must be trained on topics based on their role in the SFSP. OSPI has several short, topic-based SFSP trainings available in Canvas that sponsors can incorporate into staff trainings. There are several different training topics such as Monitoring, Menu Planning, Offer Vs. Serve, Point of Service Meal Counting, and more! 

Questions? Please email the Summer Meals team. 

The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) provides healthy meals to all children ages 18 & under, and students ages 21 and under enrolled in a Washington school district. 

SFSP sponsors must promote meal access to all children. This includes providing accommodations for children with disabilities who have special dietary needs. 

Typically, accommodations can be made within the meal pattern requirements. If this is the case, a medical statement is not required. Examples of this may include modifying the texture of meals (pureed, chopped, etc.) and substituting food items from the same component. 

Potential Substitutions 

Gluten Free Grains 

• Corn Products, such as tortillas, tortilla chips, popcorn, corn-based cereals 
• Rice Products, such as rice crackers, enriched white or brown rice, rice cereals 
• Oat Products, such as gluten-free oatmeal or oat-based granola bars 

Allowable Milk Alternatives* 

• Lactose-free milk 
• Lactose-reduced milk 

*Please note that non-dairy milk substitutes are not creditable in SFSP without a note signed by a state-recognized medical authority. 

Meat Alternates 

• Yogurt, flavored or unflavored and nonfat, low-fat, soy or whole 
• Cheese, such as cheddar, mozzarella, American, or Swiss 
• Beans or Peas, such as black beans, refried beans, chickpeas, or hummus 
• Nuts/Seeds, such as almonds, cashews, or sunflower seeds 
• Nut/Seed Butters, such as almond butter, peanut butter, or sunflower butter 
• Eggs 
• Tofu  
  • Tofu must be commercially prepared and meet the definition established in 7 CFR 210.2 and 226.2  

Substitutions Outside the Meal Pattern 

If an accommodation cannot be made within the meal pattern requirements, a statement signed by a state-recognized medical authority must be submitted. The statement must detail: 

• Food(s) to be avoided 
• How the food impacts the participant 
• Food(s) to be substituted 

OSPI has developed the Special Dietary Accommodations Form, available in both English & Spanish, as a resource. When supported by a signature from a state-recognized medical authority, meal modifications that do not meet meal pattern requirements can be claimed for reimbursement. 

Developing a plan to complete all required site monitoring is an important aspect as summer operations are getting underway. Review our SFSP Monitoring Requirements Reference Sheet for additional details on the types, timeframes, and individual requirements for each monitoring visit.  

All monitoring forms can be found on our SFSP Requirements and Materials (ospi.k12.wa.us) page under the sub-heading “Monitoring”.  

1. If you need additional support or explanation of monitoring requirements and options, we encourage you to review the Monitoring training module located in our SFSP Canvas Dashboard and if you don’t have access to the SFSP training courses, enroll yourself in the SFSP Training Course using this link. 

 Questions? Please email your assigned SFSP specialist.  

Farm to Summer Week — July 15–19

Happy Farm to Summer Week!

Questions? Contact farmtocnp@k12.wa.us for more info. 

To support sponsors in integrating local foods into your Summer meals, OSPI is excited to feature Harvest of the Summer resource sheets. Each week for the month of July and August we will highlight one local food that will be in season. The resource sheets include fun facts, nutritional information, selection and storage tips, recipe ideas, and educational resources/activities.  

For August, we are featuring Plums, Watermelon, Cherry Tomatoes, Basil, and Cantaloupe. You can find this, and future Harvest of the Summer resource sheets on our Farm to Summer webpage.