Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Announcements from the WI DPI School Nutrition Team (SNT)
- Updates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
- Updates from the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) School Nutrition Team (SNT)
- Other Updates and Information
Updates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
USDA’s Team Nutrition’s Quick Tips: Five Ways to Add Veggies to Your Back-to School Menus
Feature What is Growing Near You: Highlight local vegetables that are harvested in late summer and early fall. Depending on your state, seasonal vegetables may include cabbage, edamame, peppers, and summer squash. Offer taste-testing activities, creative signage, and food education to help students get to know the featured veggie. Be sure to follow local health department guidance for taste-testing events. Use the Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs to determine the quantity of local vegetables to buy to meet meal pattern requirements.
Use Vegetables from USDA Foods: Frozen Green Beans and Frozen Diced Carrots are among the most popular vegetables from the USDA Foods in Schools Program. Try the Green Beans with Potatoes and Smoked Turkey recipe on your back-to-school menu. The green beans and carrots now come in smaller 2-pound bags in addition to the 5-pound bags, depending on your needs. Check out the USDA Foods Available List for SY 2021-2022.
Offer Grab n’ Go Salads: Looking for new salad ideas? The Child Nutrition Recipe Box has lots of grab n’ go salad ideas. Try these USDA container salad recipes for Salad Shakers, Marinated Black Bean Salad, Mediterranean Quinoa Salad, and Macaroni Salad.
Cater to Your Audience: The Newton County School System in Georgia offers vegetables using Southern recipes that appeal to their students. Popular vegetable offerings include Black-Eyed Pea Hummus, Cabbage Rolls, Green Beans, Tomato Bisque, and Succotash. The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Schools in Arizona offer a Soam Bav Bowl (Tepary Bean Bowl) made with local ingredients and USDA Foods. This dish reflects indigenous foods from O’odham and Piipaash traditions and is popular among students and school staff.
Dress Your Veggies: Try making USDA’s Ranch Dressing recipe. Learn how to make other salad dressings by viewing the Institute of Child Nutrition’s Scratch-Made Salad Dressings and Condiments webinar. To access this webinar and other on-demand trainings register or sign in to the iLearn portal. If providing pre-packaged salads, remember to keep dressing in a small container and place it inside the larger container with the veggies. That way, if there are any leaks, it goes into the salad!
USDA’s Team Nutrition Announces a New Smoothie Resource
Smoothies are a trendy way to serve creditable yogurt, fruit, and milk as part of a reimbursable meal. To help, Team Nutrition recently released a how-to resource for Offering Smoothies as Part of Reimbursable School Meals. This guide tackles offering scratch-made and commercially-prepared smoothies at school meals and includes sample menus, a new recipe, crediting tips, and more. Download your copy today!
New Feature Alert for the Professional Standards Training Tracker Tool!
A new feature is now available on the Professional Standards Training Tracker Tool (PSTTT). Team Nutrition appreciates receiving user feedback on the PSTTT and works continuously to enhance the user experience. Users can select a training title from a list of training titles available on the PSTTT and information related to the training, such as the length of the training, training provider, key area(s), training topic(s), and learning objective(s) will auto-populate. If users do not find the training they completed on the PSTTT training list, they may manually add the new training title and information to the list. With the latest update, users will now be able to easily upload multiple new training titles at one time to be included in the PSTTT instead of adding one at a time.
Update to Child Nutrition Database Release 24
An update to the most current release of the Child Nutrition Database, Release 24 (CN24), is now available on the FNS Child Nutrition Database website and, for software developers, the Child Nutrition Program Approved Nutrition Software PartnerWeb site.
The updated CN24 includes corrections to data for six manufacturers’ products (source code 3). A patch file in CSV format is also available. For instructions, please refer to the Read Me file that is included with the patch file.
Updates from the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) School Nutrition Team (SNT)
Spanish and Hmong Translations Now Available on the SNT Website
Spanish and Hmong translations of frequently used Free and Reduced Meal Eligibility documents are now available on the School Nutrition Team Website. This includes applications, the required public release, notification letters, and more.
Join the Wisconsin AmeriCorps Farm to School Program Team!
The Wisconsin AmeriCorps Farm to School Program is looking for dedicated service members! AmeriCorps Farm to School members serve their communities by teaching nutrition lessons, connecting local farmers to schools, helping build or maintain school gardens, introducing students to local foods, and promoting volunteerism.
To apply for an AmeriCorps Farm to School service position, please fill out the Online Application. The AmeriCorps Farm to School Program Website and the online application both include a complete list of available positions, host site locations, member benefits, and more. You can also watch this Video to learn why some of our current members love serving their communities as an AmeriCorps member.
The service year starts in August, so get your application in as soon as you can! For questions about the program, how serving with our program might fit into your career path, or questions about the online application, please email Kara Ignasiak at kara.ignasiak@dpi.wi.gov.
Other Updates and Information
Institute of Child Nutrition Virtual, Instructor-Led Trainings
The Institute of Child Nutrition (ICN) will have virtual, instructor-led trainings (VILTs) available this fall. Registration to attend is free, and the sessions are live, interactive training sessions for Child Nutrition Professionals. These sessions feature individual lessons led by ICN's expert trainers on great back-to-school topics. All classes are currently full but are expected to have spots available later this fall. Future dates and times for all available topics can be found at the Registration Link.
Registration is limited to 25 participants per session.
Available VILT classes:
- Basic Culinary Math
- Financial Management for Managers
- Food Allergies for School Nutrition Managers and Staff
- Food Safety Basics
- Forecasting the Procurement of Foods
- Key Performance Indicators
- Norovirus in Schools
- Nutrition 101: A Taste of Food and Fitness
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This institution is an equal opportunity provider.
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. dpi.wi.gov/school-nutrition #WISchoolMealsRock