School Nutrition Program Updates |
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USDA Issues Pandemic Flexibilities for Schools through June 2022 |
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a broad range of flexibilities to allow school meal programs across the country to return to serving healthy meals in fall 2021. Several meal service flexibilities that enable social distancing are now extended through June 30, 2022.
The waivers assist schools in providing safe, healthy meals free of charge to children as the pandemic continues to threaten the food and nutrition security of our most vulnerable.
Schools nationwide will be allowed to serve meals through USDA’s National School Lunch Program Seamless Summer Option (SSO), which is typically only available during the summer months. This option maintains the nutrition standards of the standard school meal programs – including a strong emphasis on providing fruits and vegetables, fluid milk, whole grains, and sensible calorie levels, while allowing schools to serve free meals to all children. In addition, schools that choose this option will receive higher-than-normal meal reimbursements for every meal they serve, which will support them in serving the most nutritious meals possible while managing increased costs associated with pandemic-related operational and supply chain challenges.
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Electronic Records: Is there a need? |
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We have the opportunity to purchase electronic production record system in Primero Edge for all North Dakota Schools.
It would involve going in and clicking a drop down box of foods into a menu. You would type pizza and all the pizza we see in the state would come up, you click one, you would type peaches and frozen or canned would come up and you click it and then a serving size, then maybe green beans, milk. The salad bar would need to be entered first as a recipe ONCE but then just 1 click to insert it in the production record. Please answer this survey question on whether or not you would use the system.
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USDA has made their ruling:
Administrative Reviews CAN go forward next school year!
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There were 40 schools notified in the fall of 2020 that we would be conducting an administrative review of the lunch program. As USDA mulled that issue over, they decided that we could not do a regular school lunch review pf programs that were not using the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) meal pattern. Since over 90% of our schools were using the Emergency Summer Food service program meal pattern, the reviews were put on hold.
For school year 2021-2022, schools will be using the Seamless Summer Option (SSO) of the NSLP and will be using the meal pattern that requires all whole grain items, separate fruit and vegetable food components and the weekly vegetable subgroup. Since the NSLP meal pattern will be used, USDA has determined that regular school lunch reviews can be performed.
This is the list we will be using for Administrative Reviews, SY 2022. We look forward to visiting with you about your program. If you have any concerns, please contact us at dpicnfd@nd.gov or call 701-328-2294.
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The Meals for Kids Site Finder was developed by USDA Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) to help children, parents, and others quickly and easily find summer meal sites near them. The site finder, available for use at no charge, is a web-based application that also works on tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices without the need to download. Go to www.fns.usda.gov/meals4kids to find meal sites in your area.
No Kid Hungry has also developed a resource for children, parents and others to find summer meal sites near them. Go to www.nokidhungry.org/find-free-meals and enter in your address to find free, healthy meals being served by organizations in your community. Families can also find meal sites near them by texting the work FOOD to 877-877. Data and message rates may apply.
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NDDPI Child Nutrition and Food Distribution
Back to School Workshops (BTSW) 2021
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NDDPI-Child Nutrition & Food Distribution will host in-person 2021 BTSW workshops in July and August. The workshop dates and locations are:
The Fargo group is split into 2 days to keep the group a bit smaller each day. Smaller groups are also needed for there will be a broker show in the afternoon. You will rotate between 4 different rooms to see and taste the processed USDA foods from Cargill, Cavendish, JTM, Pilgrim’s, Schwan’s, Tyson, and Yang.
A block of rooms is reserved at each hotel under Child Nutrition BTSW.
We have contracted with ProTeam School Food Service Consultant Janelle Peterson to do the morning presentations for food service. Janelle was the Food Service Director (FSD) in Rapid City, South Dakota and also reviewed school nutrition programs for the state of South Dakota. She will be able to relate to big and small schools with timely information for the upcoming school year.
We plan on providing reimbursable meal signs for your serving lines (breakfast AND lunch), production record books and maybe more resources!
Event Brite Registration links:
Bismarck - August 4:
**Registration with Credit Card Only**
NOTE! We will not accept any Walk-Ins or Day of Registrations.
You must PRE-Register!
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Are you a NEW ND Kitchen Manager? |
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The regulations can be daunting, so we have a couple trainings coming up this summer just for you. Space is limited in these classes so if you have taken the food safety training or have a year or more of school meal programs under your belt, please allow the new people to register first.
Food Safety in Schools Sanitation Certification - Tuesday July 20th, 2021 - 8AM - 5 PM
Bismarck State Capital - IN PERSON
Online Class: Food Safety in Schools
New Kitchen Manager Training - Wednesday July 21 - 8:30 AM - Noon
Bismarck State Capitol - IN PERSON
More information regarding each training:
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MyPlate 'Bite-by-Bite' Mini Series - DAIRY |
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MyPlate puts to action the consumer use of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). Released on December 29, 2020 – these guidelines are updated and released at least every five years by the USDA & HHS. The DGA is our nation’s leading nutrition advice to help guide Nutrition Professionals to provide nutrition guidance and National Agencies in program development.
“A healthy eating routine is important at every stage of life and can have positive effects that add up over time.” To learn more about MyPlate, visit www.MyPlate.gov.
June is National Dairy Month – a way to promote drinking milk and celebrate and support the Dairy Farmers in America that provide dairy products to us, the consumers.
For this month of the series, let us look at DAIRY.
What is included in the dairy group? MyPlate (Dairy | MyPlate) includes milk, yogurt, cheese, lactose free milk and fortified soy milk and yogurt in the dairy group. Other foods you would consider as dairy, such as butter, ice cream, sour cream and cream are not included in the MyPlate Dairy group, as they offer little calcium and are typically provide a high fat content.
What does this mean? All listed foods above, are considered creditable items in various meal components. In general, fluid milk is the only dairy item that is creditable for the Milk Component in Child Nutrition Programs. Cheese and yogurt are other creditable items in the meat/meat alternate component. Fortified soy items such as fortified soy milk or yogurt can also be incorporated into your menu. Check with your Child Nutrition Program for specific details relating to creditable food items for your reimbursable meals. If you have questions about creditable food items in your Program, reach out to our office at dpicnfd@nd.gov.
Health Benefits
Foods in the Dairy group provide nutrients including calcium (essential for building and maintaining bones and teeth), potassium (helps to maintain healthy blood pressure), Vitamin D (assists in the process of building and maintaining bone strength along with calcium and phosphorus), protein and many more micronutrients.
MyPlate and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans support intakes of milk/dairy products that are in their low fat or fat free forms.
MyPlate offers information for those that choose not to consume dairy products and how they can still choose dairy alternatives, that provide the nutrient profile similar to dairy items. These include fortified soy milk and yogurt.
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June is our last “bite-by-bite” mini-series, we have been talking about the simple steps of using MyPlate! If you want to look back on any of the segments, here are the months newsletters they were presented in:
· January – Overview on Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025
· February - Protein
· March - Fruit
· April - Grains
· May – Vegetables
· June – Dairy
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NOTE: *If you have students with a food allergy to dairy products, a signed medical statement is necessary for meal substitutions. Each child is different, so it is encouraged that you discuss the allergy with each child and their representative. Especially with dairy allergies, some children are allergic to liquid milk only, however some children may also be allergic to milk when it is cooked into products.
Remember that a milk substitution must be made in writing. A medical statement is not required if the milk substitution is nutritionally equivalent to cow’s milk which includes meeting the nutritional standards for fortification of calcium, protein, vitamin A, vitamin D and other nutrients, explained below:
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If you would like to read more about the Milk Substitution for children with Medical or Special dietary needs, click HERE to be directed to the USDA Memo.
If you have further questions about how to approach food allergies, please reach out to our office at dpicnfd@nd.gov.
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This recipe was billed as ‘Deluxe BBQ Chicken Mac & Cheese Slider.’
I could see this working as a “Primo Pulled Pork Mac & Cheese Double decker” or a “Sloppy, Sloppy Joe with Napkin” as well.
I said in a recent menu tips webinar that Mac and cheese is one of those foods to serve in the middle of the week when there is more time to devote to scrapping it off the student meal trays but adding it to a bun should help with cleanup even at the beginning of the week.
USDA Foods crediting information for pulled pork as a meat/meat alternate shows that 2 ounces of pulled pork only credits as 1 ounce so it would be easier to make the bun look fuller with a small spoodle of mac and cheese and well. The pickle would add that finishing ‘acid’ to bring this sandwich together.
In that same menu tips webinar, all the different ways to use taco meat were listed. No one came up with a ‘Taco Pasta Toss’. This recipe asks for cooked spaghetti noodles and taco filling mixed together, topped with corn niblets, and the regular taco fixings - shredded lettuce, cheese, salsa and sour cream.
We would love to see the recipe for the taco casserole mentioned on the webinar. For a list of all the other taco items, email, dpicnfd@nd.gov
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Food Safety Minute: Need Food Thermometer? Get one for FREE!
Food thermometers are important in any kitchen – whether you are cooking for your family at home or for the school menagerie. Knowing that the food being cooked is at the right temperature to make it safe to eat gives everyone peace of mind.
The USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline believes that thermometers are so important that they have a deal for everyone – a free thermometer just for calling their hotline and requesting one. It is then packaged and shipped free.
The phone number to request a free thermometer is 1-888-MPHotline or (1-888-674-6854). Call to request one if yours is missing or broken at school or possibly you do not have one at home!
If you have ANY questions about food safety, their website is a wealth of knowledge from charts for safe cooking temperatures to research on how long you can freeze chicken. The website is: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety
Did you know you can even take the temperature of your breads and cakes to make sure they are done but not overdone? Here is a nice chart to for these temperatures:
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Professional Development, Summer |
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Sanitation Update:
Kitchen Managers and Food Service Directors are required to update their Food Safety and Sanitation certification every 5 years. If you are at or coming up to the 5-year mark, the summer is a great time to get this done. There are no specific trainings or requirements of what that update looks like other than it must be a total of 3 hours of relevant food safety information. Last year during the emergency public health situation, we allowed those needed an update to take any number of food safety trainings from ‘reputable’ food safety organization. Once three hours of food safety training was completed, certificates of successful completion were sent to dpicnfd@nd.gov. We will continue to offer this method of Sanitation update. Training opportunities can be found on the ICN website, through SNA and possibly your local health unit.
ND Healthy Schools Summit
Get started on your professional development hours for school year 2021-2022 with the ‘Healthy Schools Summit’ on August 4th. This is the same day as NDDPI’s Back to School workshop in Bismarck but for those that attend in Fargo or Minot, this will be a great meeting to take in from the comfort of your office (or lake house deck!).
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REMINDERS for the Financial Side of
School Food Service
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Excess Funds: If you were notified that a plan for Excess Funds needs to be turned into NDDPI-CNFD, please get them in before the end of the school year. Last month’s article also had a reminder to do the excess funds calculation BEFORE turning in the end of the year financial report to NDDPI. If you need help with that calculation or you found that you will have excess funds and need to know how to spend it, contact dpicnfd@nd.gov and we will be happy to help!
Non-Program Foods Revenue Tool (NPFR tool)– An ANNUAL requirement
As school is wrapping up for the year, now is a great time to get the REQUIRED ANNUAL Non-Program Foods Revenue Tool (NPFR Tool) done for School Year 20-21. Non-program foods are items that are being sold outside of the reimbursable meal program such as adult meals, ala carte and catering. The NPFR Tool calculates the revenue ratio of nonprogram foods compared to the total revenue of the school foodservice account against the ratio of nonprogram foods costs compared to total food costs. The ratio for revenue must be greater than the ratio for food costs. If the ratio of revenue is less than the food cost ratio, pricing of nonprogram foods must be increased.
This tool and the annual completion requirement have been around since 2016 (USDA SP20-2016 Nonprogram Food Revenue Requirements (azureedge.net)); however, we have found a number of programs that are not familiar with it. If the 05 School Food service fund has been set up with a separate line item for revenue from nonprogram food sales and an expense category for these foods, the tool is very easy.
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For Example:
A school district had revenue from adult meal sales, second entrees and milk, a vending machine stocked by the school kitchen and cookies provided to the school board that equaled $15,000 by the end of the school year. The total revenue from all sources for the 05 school foodservice account was $60,000.
The food service director had invoices of purchased food for school breakfast and lunch that added up to $40,000.
The director had calculated a 5-day meal cost, identifying the average cost of food and multiplied that food cost by the number of adult meals recorded, then coded the food cost to the nonprogram food expense. The same was done for recorded second entrees and milk. Finally, the food purchases for the school board cookies and the vended food items were entered into the non-program food category. This expense category ended with a balance of $10,000 for the school year.
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For this case, the ratio of nonprogram food revenue to total revenue is more (.25) than the ratio of nonprogram food costs to total food costs (.20). This means that the school food service has set the price of nonprogram foods high enough to recoup the cost of purchasing the food.
If the tool does not find a high enough revenue ratio compared to food costs, the NPRF Tool results will show how much more revenue must be added to the school food service account to cover the food costs. Please contact dpicnfd@nd.gov if you need help on the nonprogram foods revenue tool.
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Looking to Print Our Newsletter? |
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We have heard that some schools would like the option of printing the newsletter so that they can better share with other staff members on their team. Below are a few tips.
NOTE: When you print, you are unable to see all the links to our resources, so be sure to have a computer available for these viewing. You can forward the link for the newsletter to any of your staff members, so be sure to utilize that opportunity so they are able to view the newsletter in its entirety!
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Did you miss a past newsletter? |
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If so, our website has been updated to now include them
(June 2020-May 2021 are posted)! Check it out here:
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General Mills offers THANKS to #TRAYBLAZERS |
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Visit this webpage for some free promotional stickers and posters (either print yourself or reach out to your K12 Rep to have them sent to you):
They also have rebates available – visit this webpage for more information:
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SEE YOU AT OUR BACK TO SCHOOL WORKSHOPS! |
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NDDPI Child Nutrition and Food Distribution
Main Office:
600 E. Boulevard Ave, Dept 201
Bismarck, ND 58505
PHONE: 701-328-2294 or 888-338-3663
FAX: 701-328-9566
Mayville Office:
14 Main St E, Mayville, ND 58257
PHONE: 701-877-8901 or 888-788-8901
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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
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