Sponsors may claim meals provided to students to eat over the Christmas break. Only meals served on days that have been approved for meal service may be claimed. If your school decides to provide meals to students during any holidays or on weekends, please update your ESFP site application in ND Foods by indicating your operational days on the calendar provided.

Every new year we hear about a school that had a freezer or cooler fail over the Christmas break. Please ensure that someone is assigned to check on freezers and coolers every day if you do not have an alarm system for temperature alerts. Think of the boxes as boxes of money instead of boxes of food, no one can afford to lose a freezer full of money. It is also time to think about menuing the freezer items instead of purchasing more food to minimize food inventory to store over the summer.

Many school staff have asked if it is okay to serve ice cream or cookies. YES! Treats can be offered with lunch; they just cannot credit as a food component. The students might enjoy an occasional treat, as well as the staff. Some companies even sell winter themed cookies.

All sponsors who were new to the Emergency Summer Food Service Program this fall will be audited in December. An email notification of the desk audit will be sent to the authorized representative in NDFoods. The notification will include a list of documents to be submitted along with instructions on what those documents are and how they should be saved and submitted. All correspondence will be via email as all reviews will be conducted off-site. Also included with the notification email is a questionnaire for each sponsor to complete. The questionnaire includes questions that we would either ask during an on-site review or program areas that we would look at while on site to ensure that the sponsor is following USDA regulations. If you are participating in ESFP and have questions regarding state desk audits, contact Melissa Anderson at mdanderson@nd.gov.

All schools were asked to complete the ESFP site review by November 30.  The ESFP site review is the internal review of the school’s program operations. Schools should have also completed the racial ethnic data collection record for the school district. The site reviews and the racial ethnic data collection record should be completed and kept on file at the school. If your school is audited by NDDPI, you will be asked to provide the ESFP site review and the racial ethnic data collection record. If you have questions regarding the site review or the racial ethnic data collection record, contact Melissa Anderson at mdanderson@nd.gov .

Schools participating in either the ESFP or NSLP must complete the October claim in NDFoods by December 30.  Claims cannot be entered into NDFoods after December 30 without submitting a late claim request. Late claim requests are allowed once every three years. Claims for November will open on December 1. Our first of two payments are scheduled for December 10. The second payment will be made on December 14. When entering the ESFP claims, please ensure that meals are entered correctly as congregate or non-congregate meals. This data will be used to report back to USDA in response to the current waivers we are utilizing. If you have questions regarding the claiming process, contact Melissa Anderson at mdanderson@nd.gov .

Schools are providing meals to students in a variety of ways this school year to keep kids safe during the pandemic. There are two different meal distribution methods that schools can use to offer meals to students. The first one is congregate meals. These meals are served in-person either in a cafeteria or classroom or other area in the school. The meals are consumed on site at the school. The second is non-congregate meals. These meals can be picked up by students or parents or home delivered to distance learners who are not able to attend in-person school. Meals are not consumed at the school. Schools can indicate the meal distribution methods they are currently using by updating their ESFP site application in NDFoods. We know that schools could be switching from in person to distance learning or even a little of both. Listing both meal distribution types on the site application is fine even if the school is not currently utilizing that method. If you have questions about the meal distribution methods, please contact Melissa Anderson at mdanderson@nd.gov.

Please find information about this at both ND Department of Health at: https://www.health.nd.gov/sites/www/files/documents/Files/MSS/coronavirus/FAQs/CDC_Quarantine_Change_FAQ.pdf

And at CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quarantine.html

CDC continues to endorse quarantine for 14 days and recognizes that any quarantine shorter than 14 days balances reduced burden against a small possibility of spreading the virus. CDC will continue to evaluate new information and update recommendations as needed. See Options to Reduce Quarantine for Contacts of Persons with SARS-CoV-2 Infection Using Symptom Monitoring and Diagnostic Testing for guidance on options to reduce quarantine.”

Things to consider when serving weekly boxes:

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Meal ideas: Think about the meal delivery services such as: Hello Fresh or Blue Apron for inspiration! Many school districts around the country are posting information on their webpages

Do you have success stories to share? Questions for other schools on how their processes are going? Email us at dpicnfd@nd.gov or post it to the "North Dakota Kitchen Nutritional Staff" Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ndkitchenstaff/!

Kitchen Counter Conversations – Recipes December 15^th, 2 p.m. Microsoft TEAMS

Take Advantage of Virtual Training From SNA: The School Nutrition Association sent out a reminder email listing webinars available in their Training Zone for school nutrition directors, managers and staff. Many of the trainings directed to the management level are only available to membership holders. However, there is a long list of online opportunities developed to address issues of serving school meals during the pandemic including a food safety series that can be used for 2020-21 sanitation update. These trainings have been made free to all school nutrition staff and can be used to satisfy the annual professional development standards.

To earn the Sanitation update, send copies of all three ‘Rewind & Repeat: Science Based Basics to Food Safety’ course completion certificates to dpicnfd@nd.gov

For more information on membership to the School Nutrition Association that includes more benefits than the professional development, check out the North Dakota School Nutrition webpage at www.northdakotasna.com  The cost of membership for all school nutrition staff in the district is an approved expenditure for the food service account. That cost is a great value at $8.25 for the North Dakota membership plus $36 for a national school nutrition employee.

FNS has extended the verification dealline to February 28, 2021. All District's that collected school meal applications during SY 2020-2021 are required to conduct verification. Although schools may have transitioned to ESFP operations, because school meal applications were used to establish eligibiity for P-EBT, verification is still necessary and required. District's have discretion to complete verification ahead of this deadline, if they have the administrative capability to do so. Please contact our office at dpicnfd@nd.gov for assistance.

Fall school health inspection reports are coming into our office. The most common finding right now is that there are food items in refrigerators without a date on them. The citation may read like this: Food Code 3-501.17: Ready to Eat (RTE), Time/Temperature Control for Safety (TCS), Date Marking Observation from the Health Inspector: No date on mayo jar, thawed gluten free items without dates.

In these cases, the Health Inspector will use the “When in doubt, throw it out” rule.

Potentially hazardous foods held in the refrigerator for more than 24 hours after opening or preparation must be properly date marked to help control the growth of Listeria monocytogenes. These bacteria can keep growing even in refrigerator temperatures. The food items include Ready to eat (RTE) and Time/Temperature Control for Safety (TCS) foods. Examples of TCS foods are dairy, eggs, meats, cooked vegetables, fresh cut leafy greens, tomatoes and melons, sprouted seeds.

On May 1, 2017, in his first official action as USDA Secretary, Sonny Perdue issued a proclamation announcing rulemaking of Child Nutrition Programs: Flexibilities for Milk, Whole Grains, and Sodium Requirements. Prior to this action, Congress included legislative action in several appropriations acts beginning in 2012 (P.L. 112-55) that addressed the whole grain requirements and Sodium Target levels. The final rule granting the flexibilities was published in December 2018.

In an April 13, 2020 court decision, the Center for Science in the Public Interest et al., v. Sonny Perdue, Secretary, et al., No. 8:19-cv-01004-GLS (D. Md. 2019), the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland found a procedural error with the promulgation of the 2018 Final Rule, and therefore, vacated the regulation. This means the flexibilities are no longer allowed, however, while this is not in effect during the COVID-19 emergency, it would mean that the programs would lose the flexibilities when schools resume operating NSLP.  The procedural error was not submitting the proposed flexibilities for public comment before enacting a final rule. USDA is correcting this error by soliciting public comments now.

On November 25, 2020 FNS published in the Federal Register a Proposed Rule, Restoration of Milk, Whole Grains, and Sodium Flexibilities, which seeks to reinstate vacated milk, whole grains, and sodium flexibilities and make them available once again to schools and institutions participating in the Child Nutrition Program. The Proposed Rule is available at: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/11/25/2020-25761/restoration-of-milk-whole-grains-and-sodium-flexibilities.

The proposed flexibilities include:

Saturday, December 5^th is World Pear Day.  To celebrate you might consider hosting a pear taste test to see which variety your students enjoy the best. There are 10 commercially grown varieties of the common pear available in our grocery stores. As seen in the picture below, pears come in green, yellow, red and brown. As with apples, pear flesh will turn brown as it sits cut so when doing a taste test, cut the pears just before tasting. To prevent browning, pears can be dipped in a mixture of lemon juice and water, but the lemon juice may affect the tasting session.

Recipe: https://usapears.org/recipe/pear-party-salsa/

Email: dpicnfd@nd.gov

Website: www.nd.gov/dpi/SchoolStaff/ChildNutritionFoodDistribution

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:

(3) E-mail: program.intake@usda.gov.