Child Nutrition Update - July 2020
JULY is ....
Renewal for School Nutrition Programs

Berry month
Blueberry month
Baked Beans month
Peach, Pickle & Picnic month
Watermelon month
July 6th opens up the renewal documents on NDFoods for the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast program, After School Snack program and the Special Milk program. Please review all documentation in ND Foods to make sure that your school is ready to serve hungry scholars this fall. One of the most important items to check out for correctness are the individuals that have access to ND Foods and the roles they are responsible for in the School nutrition programs. Our email system can be targeted to the different roles.
Free and Reduced Applications, 2020-2021
July 1 st begins the new school year. Schools can start the process of eligibility determination for free or reduced lunches at this time. All households must be notified of their opportunity to apply for free or reduced meals at the beginning of the school year and/or during the enrollment process. Send out the applications for free or reduced lunches along with the Letter to Households that includes instructions on how to fill out the application.

Note: Several schools have included the Income Eligibility Guidelines for free meals in their letters to households. Please include only reduced-price school meal eligibility levels in the letter as well as on the school meal site.
Page 21, Eligibility Manual for School Meals: “May schools include IEGs for free school meals, in addition to including the IEGs for reduced price meals, when sending out the application and any descriptive materials?
No. The application and any descriptive materials distributed to households may only contain the income levels for reduced price school meal eligibility. This requirement is statutory [42 U.S.C 1758 (b)(2)(B)(i) and (ii)].”
PrimeroEdge Online Applications https://apply4schoolmeals.dpi.nd.gov/
Advantages:
  • Fast and easy for your households to fill out. 
  • Information is saved from year to year
  • Reduce calculation errors in determination
  • Reduce benefit transfer error with automatic transfer from PrimeroEdge to PowerLunch
  • State review of applications during Administrative review is seamless
  • It’s free!

Disadvantages:
  • A slight learning curve to implement the software.
  • Extra communication/training with households to encourage their use.

On July 1 st, PrimeroEdge will be offering a new module to help with planning how to provide nutrition meals, regardless of where students are located. North Dakota school districts can already use PrimeroEdge for applications, tracking professional development and completing Administrative reviews. The Digital ordering module will be a stand alone software no matter what POS system you are using.

Contact us at dpicnfd@nd.gov for signup information.
Save The Date
September 17 th for the ND Ag in the Classroom School Lunch Day (previously Pride of Dakota day). Send us pictures of the North Dakota food you are serving that day – breakfast, lunch and snacks.

October 5-9 th is the “Apple Crunch” challenge with October 7 th as the official ‘Crunch Off Day”. This year, the challenge is going above and beyond the apple to include anything that crunches – carrots, cucumbers, jicama. Fresh fruit and vegetable program snack time could also be in on the Crunch Off.

National School Lunch Week – October 12-16 t h   SNA just released the theme for NSLW promotion: Now Playing: School Lunch A late summer release date is planned for a toolkit including graphics, activity sheets, backpack flyers and more .
Back to School Trainings
Click on the Table and Select EACH Session you would like to Register for.

NDDPI-Child Nutrition and Food Distribution
Presents
‘Back to School’ Virtual!

Save the Dates: Tuesday, July 28/Wednesday, July 29/Thursday, July 30
Sessions will be held via the Microsoft Teams platform.
Pre-register on Eventbrite for the session links and to receive a certificate of attendance.
Sessions include:

Civil Rights
(Held July 29, 10 – 11 a.m. Repeated July 29, 1 – 2 p.m.)
This training takes the participant through the maze of civil rights that cannot be trampled on when operating a federally funded school meal program. From the free and reduced applications through the service of a meal, the USDA Nondiscrimination statement must be present, civil rights complaint procedures must be implemented and logs kept, and training on conflict resolution and customer service
All staff and volunteers that interact in any way with the school meal programs must receive and document civil rights training annually.

General Session LIVE including USDA Updates and Challenges of Reopening
(Held on July 28, 1-2 p.m., Repeated July 30, 1-2 p.m.)
“What are the rules for reopening school food service this year?” is the top question now from administration and kitchen staff. We hope to offer suggestions and the latest guidance to answer the question including available waivers, guidance for different service style meal counts and required documentation. We also know that USDA FNS always have some updates close to the beginning of school. These updates will be covered in this session.

Administration of School Meals Programs
(Held July 29, 2 – 3:30 p.m. Repeated July 30, 10 – 11:30 a.m.)
This session will cover everything about School Meals Programs that is not done in the kitchen including the direct certification process, a plug for online applications, meal counting IF there is a change in meal service this year and financial management of the school foodservice account.

Administrative Review Prep
(Held July 28, 2 – 2:30 p.m., Repeated July 30, 2 – 2:30 p.m.)
Forty-eight schools and RCCI’s are scheduled for the National School Lunch program review this year. Stop by to get a start on the review process by learning about the computer system and documents needed for the review. We will go through the terminology, so everyone is speaking the same ‘language’ and touch on the most common errors found during the review.

Challenges in the Kitchen: Service, Menu and Smiles
(Held July 28, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m., Repeated July 30, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.)
School foodservice may look very different this coming year from where meals are served, how meals are served and even what the menu will look like. We will cover the latest guidance to feeding your scholars with a smile.

Equipment: Grants and More
(Held July 29, 3 – 3:30 p.m., Repeated July 30, 2 – 2:30 p.m.)
The USDA recently announced the next round of National School Lunch Program Equipment Assistance Grants. This year the grant is open to ALL schools as the financial state of most school foodservices were impacted by the emergency closures. We will go through the application process, highlight some of the possibilities to use the grant dollars on and talk with a grantee on their process for submitting a successful application.

Food Safety and Beyond
(Held July 28, 11 a.m. – 12noon, Repeated July 29, 2 – 3 p.m.)
This will be a one-hour training on the challenges to safely serve food in the coming school year while social distancing, increased sanitization and documenting employee health. Those needing the Sanitation Update this year will have the opportunity to use this class along with 2 more hours of documented Food Safety/Sanitation coursework to fulfill the requirements of “3 hours of Food Safety/Sanitation training at least every 5 years”.

Prof Dev/Diets/FFVP
(Held July 29, 2 – 2:30 p.m., Repeated July 30, 11:30 p.m. – 12 Noon)
This session will cover a few of the National School Lunch program that we get the most questions about – How will I get my Professional Development done this year?; Will I have to accommodate Special Diets in the new meal service styles?; Can I use my Fresh Fruit and Vegetable grant dollars to cover all my produce costs? Tune in for answers to these questions and more.

USDA Foods
(Held July 28, 10 – 11 a.m., Repeated July 30, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.)
Current updates on USDA Foods for School Year 2020-2021

USDA Processing with Brokers, LIVE
(Held July 29, 11 a.m. – 12 noon, Repeated July 29, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.)
Hear from the brokers that represent our current processed foods, live Q&A, recipe ideas, plus hear about new products!!
Employee Food Safety Posters

CDC Posters on Handwashing for Kids and the general public: https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/posters.html#additional-resources

And All 44 print resources for COVID-19: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/communication/print-resources.html?Sort=Date%3A%3Adesc Including face masks, quarantine, and handwashing

FDA Posters on Retail Food Protection: https://www.fda.gov/food/retail-food-industryregulatory-assistance-training/retail-food-protection-industry-educational-materials Including: No Bare Hand contact; Employee Health; Prevent Cross Contamination; Proper Cooking and Cooling; and Date Marking

Kansas State University’s Center for Food Safety in Child Nutrition programs: https://cnsafefood.k-state.edu/resources/food-safety-posters/

Partnership for Food Safety (FightBac.org) Posters and More: https://www.fightbac.org/free-resources/be-food-safe-resources-2/
Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Looking for a different snack for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable program to consider at the beginning of the school year? Golden Berries were the ‘new and hot’ fruit/vegetable being promoted at the United Fresh Virtual Produce conference at the end of June.
You may know Golden Berries by another name such as Cape Gooseberries, Inca Berries and Husk Berries. My dad loved them and called them ground cherries.
Golden Berries are a member of the nightshade family. The plant that produces the little fruits looks like a tomato plant with white flowers rather than the yellow tomato blossom. Once the flower has been pollinated, it forms a papery shell that the berry grows inside of. When the fruit is ripe, it will turn from grass green to golden yellow and the papery husk will dry out and turn pale tan.

The berry is harvested with the husk around the fruit. Some producers will leave the husk on and some will remove it prior to selling.

When Golden Berries are ripe, their flavor has been described as sweet-tart, between a pineapple and tomato. Others find hints of mango or cherries in the taste. They are nutritious with lots of fiber, Vitamin A and antioxidants.

Golden Berries are readily available both dried and canned. However, they are a seasonal fruit so look for fresh fruit on shelves in late summer to early fall. Now is the time to alert your food distributor that you would like to try these new fruits when school starts to give them good lead time for procurement. You may also want to try your local farmer’s market as a source for large quantities.

Remember the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable program is designed to allow students to try new fruits and vegetables. You may want to pair the Golden Berry with a strawberry or grape, so they are snacking on something familiar as well.

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program grants will be announced the first part of August, Good luck!
Non Discrimination Statement
In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA.
Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication for program information (e.g. Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language, etc.), should contact the Agency (State or local) where they applied for benefits. Individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech disabilities may contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339. Additionally, program information may be made available in languages other than English.
To file a program complaint of discrimination, complete the USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, (AD-3027) found online at: http://www.ascr.usda.gov/complaint_filing_cust.html , and at any USDA office, or write a letter addressed to USDA and provide in the letter all of the information requested in the form. To request a copy of the complaint form, call (866) 632-9992. Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by:
(1) Mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20250-9410;
(2) Fax: (202) 690-7442; or

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.