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School Nutrition Bulletin 1920-04

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Announcements from the WI DPI School Nutrition Team

Updates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

 
 
The FY19 USDA Farm to School Census is LIVE!
(Please note that the email to participate in the Census is not from USDA FNS. While the Census is fund by the USDA FNS, it is managed by Abt Associates Inc., an independent research company. Therefore, schools will receive an email from farmtoschool@abtsurvey.com. The subject of this email is Farm to School Census invitation.)
 
The USDA Farm to School Census (Census) is open and responses are expected from every School Food Authority (SFA). USDA is seeking a high response rate for this year’s Census and needs your help!
 
In case you were not aware, the USDA Midwest Region (now including Iowa) saw 69 percent participation in the last Census. Seventy-four percent (74%) of districts responded in the 2015 Census nationally. Wisconsin had 73 percent of all schools and districts responding.
 
State
Number of respondents
Number of school districts
As a percent of all districts
IA
336
449
75%
IL
821
1,355
61%
IN
397
550
72%
MI
595
869
68%
MN
530
689
77%
OH
714
1,258
57%
WI
567
775
73%
 
 
 
Avg: 69%
 
Anyone up for a little friendly competition? After the Census, Jenna Segal from USDA would like to acknowledge everyone’s efforts and recognize the region’s State with the highest FY19 response rate and the State with most improved FY19 response rate. Let’s make it Wisconsin!
 
Why participate in the Farm to School Census?
  • The Census measures the scope, reach, and overall impact of farm to school efforts across the nation. This Census is the only national survey that examines SFAs’ activities in regard to local food purchasing, school gardens, and agricultural education.
  • The Census demonstrates the innovative efforts of NSLP programs to provide healthy food and nutrition education to children, while supporting American agriculture and strengthening local communities, by reinforcing local control in production and purchasing.
  • The Census allows for SFAs to report on the challenges and benefits regarding their farm to school programs.
  • USDA uses Census data to inform decisions regarding the Farm to School Grant Program, training and technical assistance strategies, and resource development. The Census data also helps USDA and States have a better understanding of the level of farm to school activities, best practices, and challenges across the country.
In the last Census, SFAs could make corrections to their data, but this will not be an option this year. In FY19, SFAs that make egregious errors can contact Abt Associates prior to the closure of the survey (11/2019) about a needed correction. Abt will do their best to accommodate, but depending on capacity, may not be able to make the adjustment. Therefore, it is very important to provide the most accurate data possible.
 
“And Justice for All” Posters
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (OASCR) recently instructed all USDA agencies to halt distribution of the “And Justice For All” (AJFA) posters featuring the Statue of Liberty. This directive resulted because of an issue with the graphic on the poster. At present, new AJFA posters have been developed and are pending printing.
 
Posters currently posted do not need to be removed until replaced with the new poster. Once the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) receives the new posters, we will let SFAs know how to order posters at that time.
 
USDA Webinar: Exhibit A Grains Tool to the Rescue!
Wednesday, September 25, 2019, 1:00 pm CST
Team Nutrition is excited to demonstrate the Exhibit A Grains Tool, the newest feature of the Food Buying Guide (FBG) Interactive Web Tool and FBG Mobile App. The Exhibit A Grains Tool assists program operators in determining the meal pattern contribution of commercial grain products. During the webinar, participants will get hands-on practice using the Grains Tool. Registration for this webinar is open. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. If you are unable to attend the LIVE webinar, there will be a recording of the webinar announced and posted a few weeks after the webinar’s completion.
 
Webinar Professional Standards Learning Objectives:
Key Area: 1000, 2000
Training Topic: 1100, 2400
Learning Objective: 1140, 2430
 
The Evaluation of the School Meal Data Collection Process study describes and evaluates the methodologies and processes used by schools, SFAs, and state agencies to collect and report data on three Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) forms used for the federal school meal programs: the Report of School Program Operations (FNS-10), the SFA Verification Collection Report (FNS-742), and the State Agency Direct Certification Rate Data Element Report (FNS-834). In addition to describing the processes, the study identifies potential sources of error when completing the three forms and provides useful practices and recommendations for improving data collection processes.
 
The demonstration of Direct Certification with Medicaid for Free and Reduced-Price Meals (DCM-F/RP) allows authorized States and school districts to use information from Medicaid data files to identify students eligible to receive free or reduced-price (F/RP) National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) meals. The FNS contracted with Mathematica Policy Research to conduct a study of the first two years of this demonstration to describe the implementation process and explore the effects on certification, participation, Federal reimbursements, and State administrative costs. This report presents the findings from the first year of the demonstration evaluation, school year (SY) 2016–2017.
 
What's Cooking? USDA Mixing Bowl Reminder
Friendly reminder that the What’s Cooking? USDA Mixing Bowl recipe website is getting a new look! This coming fall, USDA will transition the recipe website to ChooseMyPlate.gov; your current What’s Cooking credentials and content will no longer be accessible. Please print or save your What’s Cooking favorites to your personal computer by Monday September 30, 2019. For more information, go to the USDA What’s Cooking webpage.
 
Team Nutrition’s USDA Standardized Recipes Will be Moving to the Institute of Child Nutrition’s Child Nutrition Recipe Box!
The Child Nutrition Recipe Box (CNRB) provides Child Nutrition program operators with recipes to prepare healthy and delicious meals that meet meal pattern requirements. These recipes are standardized to provide meal pattern crediting information for all meal pattern components and include recipes made with legumes, whole grains, and vegetables from the vegetable subgroups including dark green, red, and/or orange vegetables.
 
The CNRB will be rolled out in multiple phases.
Phase One - Available September 16
On September 16, Child Nutrition programs will be able to access a growing collection of USDA Standardized Recipes on the CNRB website. Recipes are organized by main entrées, vegetables, fruits, and grains, as well as alphabetically for users looking for a specific recipe. Users will be able to download and print recipes as needed.
 
Phase Two - Available Spring 2020
The CNRB will provide tools and resources to help program operators navigate and implement standardized recipes. These resources will include:
  • Search tools to find recipes using a variety of search filters, such as USDA Program, Cooking Equipment, Recipe Categories, and Cuisine, to help users identify recipes of interest to them;
  • “Build My Cookbook” where users can save their favorite recipes to make a customized cookbook;
  • Shopping list feature where users can create a list of groceries from the selected recipes’ ingredients; and
  • Consumer-friendly features such as star ratings, recipe reviews, and options to share content on social media.
For up-to-date information on the CNRB, please visit the Institute of Child Nutrition Recipe Box webpage.
 

Updates from the DPI School Nutrition Team

 
DPI’s Small Victories Workshop at Various Locations in October
Register for this Workshop Today! The featured topic will be Marketing with Diversity. This interactive, hands-on workshop will review effective marketing strategies geared at increasing meal participation. Creative marketing strategies will be discussed to help raise awareness of the positive opportunities your meal program can provide to students. In addition, the workshop will include ideas and creative ways to market a variety of ethnic options on your menu for students. Please join us for a fun night of learning and networking. There is no cost to attend this workshop. All classes are 3:45 to 7:00 PM. Dates and locations are:
  • Monday, October 14, Ellsworth Elementary, 445 South Piety Street, Ellsworth, WI 54011
  • Tuesday, October 15, Northwood School District, N14463, Highway 53, Minong, WI 54859
  • Wednesday, October 16, Rhinelander High School, 665 Coolidge Avenue, Rhinelander, WI 54501
  • Monday, October 21, Fall River School District, 150 Bradley Street, Fall River, WI 53932
  • Tuesday, October 22, Lancaster High School, 806 E Elm Street, Fennimore, WI 53813
  • Wednesday, October 23, Menomonee Falls High School, N80 W14350 Titan Drive, Menomonee Falls, WI 53051
Our American Indian Traditional Foods in USDA School Meals Programs: A Wisconsin Farm to School Toolkit was recently added as a resource to the Wisconsin First Nations Education website.
 
This toolkit was produced through a USDA Farm to School grant. The grant was written to help increase the amount of traditional and local foods served through child nutrition programs by providing targeted technical assistance. Trainings at each of the Bureau of Indian Education schools in the state included topics such as recipe development and analysis using traditional foods, how to maximize USDA Foods purchases and the DoD Fresh Program, establishing and maintaining school gardens, and competitive procurement of local foods.
 
Wisconsin’s Team Nutrition (WI TN) was Awarded a Fiscal Year 2019 Team Nutrition Training Grants for Innovative State Training Programs
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction will expand their Goal Oriented Achievement Learning Skills (GOALS) training certification program to reach at least 180 school nutrition professionals in 60 rural and underserved SFAs. There will be 18 regional trainings to implement a two-day Quality Meal Improvement course, where each school foodservice director, manager, and frontline staff will receive 16 hours of training (providing a total of 2,880 hours of training). As a follow-up to the training, participants will complete a meal quality self-assessment and develop an action plan to improve meal quality. WI TN will award sub-grants to support the implementation of strategies designed to improve meal quality. The grant’s evaluation plan includes staff training assessments, student satisfaction surveys, and assessments of school meal participation rates and production records.
 
September Is National Food Safety Education Month
While it is important to practice safe food handling habits all year, this observance provides an opportunity to review food safety principles. Check out these resources on DPI’s Food Safety in School webpage.
 

Other Updates and Information

 
Thursday, September 26, 2019, 2:00-3:00 pm CST
Customer service is a combination of product, price, presentation, support, information, and delivery that has value to the customer. Customer service should be the foundation for everything school nutrition professionals to provide a customer-friendly school nutrition program. This webinar explores strategies and tools that recognize the school nutrition professional team as a vital component of the customer service experience. Spencer E. Taylor, MS, RDN, LDN, Executive Director of Nutrition Services at Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) in Nashville, TN will discuss strategies on building the school nutrition workforce to enhance customer service in school nutrition programs. Lora Gilbert, MS, RD, SNS, FADA, Sr. Director for FNS will discuss how enhancing customer service among school nutrition employees provides greater access to quality, nutritious meals in a customer-friendly environment. A continuing education certificate will be available after completion of the webinar.
 
Webinar Professional Standards Learning Objectives
Key Areas: (3000) Administration
Training Topic: (3400) Human Resources and Staff Training
Learning Objectives: At the end of this webinar, attendees will be able to identify strategies and resources to achieve quality customer service among internal customers (school nutrition professionals).
 
Wisconsin Farm to School
October is Farm to School Month! Check out the resources and ways to celebrate from the National Farm to School Network. Additionally, our state participates in the Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch and the Wisconsin Chili Lunch this fall. Consider doing something special in your school/district to help celebrate!
 
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This is a communication from the WI Department of Public Instruction, School Nutrition Team.
You can contact the School Nutrition Team at dpifns@dpi.wi.gov. To subscribe to schoolmealsnews, please send an email to dpifns@dpi.wi.gov.
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