orientation to the school nutrition programs to the school nutrition programs lindsay blough-mabie,...
TRANSCRIPT
ORIENTATION TO THE SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAMS
Lindsay Blough-Mabie, M.S.
Illinois State Board of Education
Nutrition & Wellness Programs
AGENDA
Overview of the Child Nutrition Programs
Certification of Eligibility & Direct Certification
Verification of Eligibility
Benefit Issuance & Meal Counting
Menu Planning
Federal and State Miscellaneous Regulations
WINS System
Reviews
USDA Foods
The information that I am providing today is a
broad overview of many of the requirements of
the School Nutrition Programs, this is in no way
covers all areas in the detail needed to
administer the programs. Therefore, we highly
recommend the following additional resources:
Administrative Handbook
Archived Webinars
Our website
Additional sessions offered during this
Conference
Keep your eye out for other trainings and/or
webinars we provide throughout the year.
OVERVIEW OF CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS
COMMONLY USED ACRONYMS
ISBE: Illinois State Board of Education
SNP: School Nutrition Programs
NSLP: National School Lunch Program
IWAS: Illinois Web Application Security
WINS: Web-based Illinois Nutrition System
VSR: Verification Summary Report
FSMC: Food Service Management Company
SFSP: Summer Food Service Program
LEA: Local Educational Agency
CACFP: Child & Adult Care Food Program
PLE: Paid Lunch Equity
SFA: School Food Authority
SNAP: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
TANF: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
HEA: Household Eligibility Application
TERMINOLOGIES
SFA = School Food Authority
LEA = Local Educational Agency
Sponsor = sponsoring organization, this may be the church, the
public school district, the non-profit organization that is legally
responsible for the school/site.
All 3 of these terms are often used interchangeably.
Anytime that you contact our office, we will want to know the name
of your sponsor/LEA/SFA in case we need to look you up in the
electronic system.
TERMINOLOGIES
Agreement number or RCDT #: both of these terms are referring to the same thing. Each sponsor/SFA/LEA is given a number to identify them by. The numbers are in this order XX-XXX-XXXX-XX and may or may not include letters.
Much of our paperwork requires you to put this identifying number on it, so I would suggest writing it down and having it someplace handy. We also may ask for it if you contact our office with a question.
Additionally, each site you have in our programs is given a 5 digit site number.
CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS
Chi
ld N
utri
tion
Pro
gra
ms
School Nutrition Programs (SNP)
Child & Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
Summer Food Service Program
SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAMS
National School
Breakfast Program
National School Lunch
Program
Illinois Free Lunch
Program
Illinois Free
breakfast Program
Special Milk
Program
After School Snack
Program
SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAMS
Who Can Participate?
Public Schools
Non-Public Schools that are registered with ISBE & non-profit
Residential Child Care Institutions
Program Requirements:
Nutritional Requirements
Service Requirements
Financial Requirements
Certification Requirements
State Requirements
SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAMS
Eligible Children:
All Children enrolled at a participating site may have the option to receive a meal.
Children from families with incomes at or below 130 percent of the poverty level are eligible for free meals. Those between 130 and 185 are eligible for reduced price meals.
Students eligible for reduced price meals can be charged no more than 40 cents for a reimbursable lunch, 30 cents for breakfast and 15 cents for snacks.
THE USDA REQUIRES SPECIF IC FOOD COMPONENTS TO BE SERVED IN REQUIRED AMOUNTS BASED ON THE GRADE LEVEL OF THE STUDENTS
BE ING SERVED. THE REQUIRED MEAL COMPONENTS ARE : MILK, GRAINS, MEAT/MEAT ALTERNATES, FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.
Menu
Planning
REIMBURSEMENT
Sponsors in our programs receive reimbursement for each meal that meets program requirements.
These meals must be counted by the number of free, reduced and paid meals served. (unless they are in CEP)
Each month the sponsor will need to submit a claim through the WINS system and that is how the amount of reimbursement is determined & distributed.
The USDA determines the reimbursement rates annually for all meal and milk programs.
REIMBURSEMENTThe greater than 60% reimbursement level is used if greater than 60% of the lunches served by the entire SFA/sponsor in the second preceding school year were served at the free and/or reduced price. More F/R = higher rate of reimbursement!
6 Cents – 99.9% of schools in IL receive the extra 6 cents. The only ones that don’t were certified, but had it taken away due to findings of non-compliance during an Administrative Review.
Severe Need - this is site level data and is for sites in which at least 40% or more of the lunches claimed in the second preceding year were served free and/or reduced. Again –more F/R = higher rate of reimbursement
NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM
NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM
Provides healthy well rounded lunches to students.
Meals must meet meal pattern requirements by grade group
Free, reduced and paid eligibility must be determined and documentation maintained.
Lunches are claimed based on the number of free, reduced and paid lunches served each day.
SCHOOL BREAKFAST PROGRAM
SCHOOL BREAKFAST PROGRAM
Provides healthy well rounded breakfasts to students.
Meals must meet meal pattern requirements by grade group
Free, reduced and paid eligibility must be determined and documentation maintained.
breakfasts are claimed based on the number of free, reduced and paid lunches served each day.
SPECIAL MILK PROGRAM
SPECIAL MILK PROGRAM
The special milk program is available to the same organizations as the other SNP.
The SMP is for children that don’t have access to the NSLP or SBP. Sites can not be in the NSLP and/or SBP AND the SMP.
The only exception is if there was a school that was in NSLP for their K-12 students, but their PK program is a ½ day program and they leave before lunch is served. Those PK students could be in the SMP because they don’t have access to the NSLP. But the K-12 students would only be in the NSLP.
There are 3 options with the milk program. Free/pricing program
Paid/pricing program
Paid/non-pricing program
Please contact our office if you are interested in learning more about the SMP.
AFTER SCHOOL SNACK PROGRAM
AFTER SCHOOL SNACK PROGRAM
Provides healthy well rounded snacks to students.
Snacks must meet meal pattern requirements by grade group
There must be an academic enrichment activity associated with the after school program.
There are 2 options based on eligibility of the site.
Sites that have at least 50% free and reduced eligibility are able to participate in the snack programs through a reimbursement program called area eligibility – in which all snacks are claimed free and get that higher rate of reimbursement. They would just keep track of the total number of snacks served instead of by free, reduced and paid.
If the site is not area eligible then they would need to take counts by free, reduced and paid eligibility and documentation must be maintained.
OTHER CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS
CHILD AND ADULT CARE FOOD PROGRAM
The Child and Adult Care Food Program is available to non-profit and for-profit non-residential child care centers; family day care homes; Head Start centers; and outside of school hours child care programs.
The adult care portion of the program is administered by the Department on Aging.
Some of our schools do participate in the outside of school hours program, which can include the supper program.
SUMMER FOOD SERVICE PROGRAM
The SFSP provides nutritious meals to children during the summer months when school is not in session.
Schools have 2 summer options available:
SFSP
Seamless Summer Option (SSO)
CONTACT INFORMATION
Applications, program requirements, rules & regulations of SNP
800/545-7892
USDA Foods & DoD
800/545-7892
Claim, claiming system, reimbursement &
payments
217/792-5256
OUTLOOK NEWSLETTERWe put out a monthly electronic newsletter called the Outlook, which provides updates on program administration. Some examples include:
Upcoming Due Dates
New USDA Regulations, rules, memos
New tools or resources
Success Stories
Grant Opportunities
Trainings
The Authorized
Representative &
Contact Person on
your application in
WINS will
automatically receive
the Outlook monthly to
their email.
Others can get on the
listserv by emailing
request added.
TIMELINE OF IMPORTANT DATES
The Administrative Handbook includes a calendar with important due dates and reminders that can be very helpful in planning your year and ensuring that you get everything in on time.
CERTIFICATION OF ELIGIBILITY
WHAT IS CERTIFICATION OF ELIGIBILITY?
In the School Nutrition Programs (unless a school is in CEP) every student must be determined as eligible for free, reduced or paid meals. This can be through any of the following methods:
Direct Certification
Household Eligibility Application (HEA)
Extension of Benefits
Homeless, Migrant, Runaway listings
ELECTRONIC DIRECT CERTIFICATION
Online System accessed through WINS
We provide reports of matches of students enrolled in your school with who are on SNAP, TANF, Income Eligible Medicaid, homeless and foster.
Public schools – provided with a monthly match
Non-public schools – need to upload a file into the system for matches
Single child match
ELECTRONIC DIRECT CERTIFICATION
Process:
Start by checking direct certification
Go through your list and verify which students on the list are enrolled in your school. There are close and exact matches in the direct certification system.
Any students found are eligible for free meals with no additional documentation needed. A letter should be provided to households that are found in DC
All other students (not on DC) will need to receive a Household Eligibility Application (HEA)
Please note:
you will not have access to this electronic system until you are approved for the meal programs, therefore if you are a new sponsor, you may not have access to this system yet, so you may need to start with gathering Household Eligibility Applications first, but in future years the first thing you will check each year is this electronic system and then you will provide Household Eligibility Applications to any households NOT found in that electronic system.
EXTENSION OF BENEFITS
Extension of Benefits – is the extension of benefits for free meals to ALL members of the same household if anyone in the household is found in the electronic system.
Ex. If you had a household that had 2 household members that are enrolled in school, lets use John and Sarah and Sarah is located in that electronic system but John is not, since they live in the same household you can extend those free benefits from Sarah to John.
You will use our sample Extension of Benefits form to document that you extended benefits from (ex. Sarah to John) and maintain a copy of that form for your records.
Then you provide an approval letter to the household to let them know (ex. Sarah and John) are approved for free meals.
HOUSEHOLD ELIGIBILITY APPLICATIONS
For any households that were not located in the electronic direct certification system, you must provide them with a Household Eligibility Application they can complete and return to you.
Once you receive that application back from the household, you must review it for completeness and determine their eligibility as free, reduced or paid.
HOUSEHOLD ELIGIBILITY APPLICATIONYou will determine their eligibility for free, reduced or paid meals based on:
Income and household size (based on a chart provided annually in the Administrative Handbook).
Approvable SNAP or TANF case id number (approvable numbers are located in the Administrative Handbook).
If marked as homeless, migrant or runaway – that application must be approved by your homeless liaison and/or migrant/runaway caseworker.Additionally, your homeless liaison can provide you with a listing of homeless students that they sign and you can
provide those students with free meals.
Please review the Administrative Handbook for more in depth information on certifying Household Eligibility Applications.
Note – households must be provided with the application but can NOT be required to complete them.
Note – you must ALWAYS maintain documentation of how a student was determined to be eligible for free or reduced meals.
HOUSEHOLD ELIGIBILITY APPLICATION
These are the income guidelines that you would use to determine if a household is eligible for free, reduced or paid meals based on their income and household size.
For ex. if a household applies at there is a total of 4 household members and they make $2500 per month – based on this chart they would be eligible for free meals because they make less than $2665 per month.
HOUSEHOLD ELIGIBILITY APPLICATION
Applicants can provide the SNAP or TANF number of any household member on the HEA.
If that SNAP or TANF number matches the sequencing that we provide to you then children listed on that application can be determined as eligible for free meals.
We would recommend that you try to look this number up in the DC system – if found you can directly certify them. If you do not find them then go ahead and process the application and make a determination on if the number matches the sequencing.
CERTIFICATION FORMS
HEA must include the letter to the household, application & instructions.
We also have the HEA in Spanish
Under Additional Forms you will find the:
denial/approval letter for HEA’s
approval letter for Direct Cert
Extension of benefits form
and more
DOCUMENTATION
You MUST maintain documentation of eligibility.
When we come out and do reviews we will look through your documentation.
Documentation must be maintained for a minimum of 3 years plus the current and longer if you have any reviews that are not closed yet.
Documentation must be kept in a secure area where
Only need to know staff have access.
SESSION ON DIRECT CERTIFICATION & CERTIFICATION
Direct Certification & Certification
Thursday Aug 3
7:30am-9:45am (double session)
Room #1
VERIFICATION OF ELIGIBILITY
WHAT IS VERIFICATION?
Verification is basically checking the information provided on a Household Eligibility Application for accuracy.
This could include checking a SNAP or TANF number on an application in the direct certification system.
OR
It could include requesting documentation of income from a household.
verification is only conducted on application, there is no verification of information in the DC system. (this is why we recommend directly certifying as many students as possible).
WHAT IS THE VERIFICATION SUMMARY REPORT? Annually you are required to
complete the verification process and complete the Verification Summary Report (VSR).
The verification process requires that you check no more and no less than 3% of your APPLICATIONS (only paper applications).
The only time that you can verify applications is if they are a part of your 3% verification sample or if they are a verification for cause (which I will go over later).
BASICS OF VERIFICATION
Step 1: select your 3% sample
Step 2: if the application is free based on SNAP or TANF you can check the electronic direct certification system first, if not found then send a request to the family asking for proof of their SNAP or TANF benefits. If the application is based on income send a request to the family asking for proof of their income.
Step 3: household provides proof = if it backs up their app they are done, if it does not back up the info on their app you must change them to the correct category (free, reduced or paid). Household does NOT provide proof = change them to paid eligible
BASICS OF THE VSR
Once all of your 3% applications have been verified complete
the online VSR to report to ISBE the results of your verification
process.
If you start the program late in the year, you may not be
required to do the VSR but you are still required to do the
verification process, so you would still check your 3% but you
would not be required to complete the online report. Check
with our office to see if you are required to do the report.
VERIFICATION FOR CAUSE Verification for cause is outside of the 3%
sample that you are required to do.
Verification for cause is an option that you may have if you have direct knowledge that information on the household application is incorrect.
Direct knowledge is just that, you must KNOW that the info provided is incorrect, it can not be based on the car someone drives or the cloths they wear.
Ex. If a parent states that they do not have a job on the household application but when they fill out other paperwork for school they put down their work phone number = that is direct knowledge.
SESSION ON VERIFICATION
Verification
Thursday Aug 3
12:45pm-1:45pm
Room #3
BENEFIT ISSUANCE & MEAL COUNTING
BENEFIT ISSUANCE
Benefit issuance documents or determines how students are claimed on a daily basis.
Basically, benefit issuance documentation communicates the approval category (free, reduced or paid) for each student and helps to take and maintain accurate daily meal counts by category.
Examples of benefit issuance include:
Rosters
Tickets
Tokens
Bar code cards
Student identification cards
Biometrics
Pin pads
COMMUNITY ELIGIBILITY PROVISION (CEP)
There is an alternative to traditional meal counting and claiming for schools with very high free eligibility.
CEP uses direct certification, extension of benefits and homeless/migrant/runaway listings to determine a percentage.
This percentage must be at least 40% to participate.
That percentage is multiplied by 1.6 and a CEP percentage is determined.
With CEP schools, they do not determine individual student statuses – they serve all students breakfast and lunch at no cost, keep track of the total number of meals served each day and then apply their CEP percentage to the number of meals and that is how their reimbursement is paid to them.
BENEFIT ISSUANCE
Benefit issuance documents must be updated when a change occurs in a students benefits.
Some examples of when student benefits may change:
Verification findings
Student transfers
Change in household size, income or receipt of SNAP/TANF/Medicaid
If a students benefits increase that change must be made within 3 operating days of the new determination.
If a students benefits decrease the household must be notified and provided 10 calendar days written advanced notice of the change.
MEAL COUNTING
Meal counting must be done by eligibility category without overtly identifying a students eligibility as free, reduced or paid.
In other words the manner in which you count your meals should not allow anyone, other than you or allowable staff, to know if a student is free, reduced or paid.
You can only claim 1 reimbursable meal per meal student that receives one, ex. If eligible for reduce price meals, you can only claim 1 lunch for that student, if they want a 2nd meal that would be a la carte and they should pay full price and you can not claim that meal. Your meal counting mechanism must ensure that you can not claim more than 1 meal per student.
Meal counting must take place at the Point of Service (POS) meaning the end of the line where you can see that the child has a complete meal with all of the required components.
MEAL COUNTING
allowable
Checklist (that does not overtly identify students)
Computerized scan cards
Computerized pin pad (students are given a code they put in the pin pad to identify themselves)
Tickets (that does not overtly identify)
Meal count at the end of the line after ALL meal components are obtained.
Not allowable
Checklist with F, R, P next to the name.
Student has to say if they are free, reduced or paid
Tickets that have F, R, P on them or colors that indicate free, reduced or paid (too overt)
Meal counting based on a morning meal prep count.
Meal count based on the number of meals delivered to the school.
Meal count based on a tray count
Meal count before the students can get their milk.
MEAL CLAIMING
Each month you are required to complete and submit your
monthly claim.
The claim form will require the number of free meals, reduced
meals and paid meals served each day.
The monthly claim will also ask for additional data regarding
your enrollment, average daily attendance, and free,
reduced and paid eligibles.
You are also required to complete a monthly meal count edit form, which can be found on our website.
MEAL CLAIMING
Meal claims are recommended to be completed within 10 days after the month in which you are claiming.
However, according to USDA regulations you have up to 60 days from the last day of the month you are claiming to submit your claim.
Just keep in mind the sooner you submit your claim the sooner you will receive your reimbursement.
SESSIONS ON BENEFIT ISSUANCE & MEAL COUNTING
Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)
Wed Aug 2
12:00-1:00pm
Room #3
Benefit Issuance, Meal Counting & Claiming
Wed Aug 2
4:00pm-5:00pm
Room #3
MENU PLANNING
MENU PLANNING Each meal program has specific requirements for what must be included in a
complete meal.
Serving sizes are required for each food component based on the grade group they are in – K-5, 6-8, or 9-12.
Food Components:
Meat/meat alternate
Grain
Fruit
Vegetable
milk
All required food components in the required serving sizes are required in order to receive reimbursement for that meal.
More resources available on our webpage at: http://www.isbe.net/nutrition/htmls/nslp-hhfka-fbmp-ns.htm
MENU PLANNING – REQUIREMENT CHART
MENU PLANNING – REQUIREMENT CHART
MEAL PATTERN - MEASUREMENTS
Ounce Equivalents
Grain
Meat/Meat Alternate
Cups
Fruit
Vegetables
Milk
VEGETABLE SUBGROUPS
GRAINS
All grains offered must be Whole Grain Rich (WGR)
WGR means that at least 50% of the grains in that item must be whole grains.
A grain chart must be used to determine the ounce equivalents for each grain that you are serving.
There is a cap on the amount of grain based desserts that can be served of 2 oz eq per week.
MEAT/MEAT ALTERNATES
MILK
• Allowable milk options:-Fat-free (unflavored or flavored)
-Low-fat (unflavored only)
-Lactose-reduced or lactose-free low-
fat or fat-free
• Must offer at least two
choices
• Does not alter nutrition
standards for milk
substitutes
OFFER VS SERVE
Offer vs. Serve (OVS) is a way to cut down on plate waste in which you have to offer all of the required food components but students can decline to take some of them.
For lunch you would offer all 5 required food components and students can decline up to 2 of those components, but they MUST take at least 1 full serving of a fruit or vegetable. Ex. Meal is a chicken sandwich (meat & grain), green beans (veg), orange slices (fruit) and milk – they decline the beans and the milk – this is still a complete meal if you opt for OVS.
OVS can be a bit confusing so please review it in the Administrative Handbook for more information.
OVS is optional for grades K-8 and is required for 9-12.
OFFER VS SERVE
Why would we do OVS?
It can cut down on waste. This way students can decline items they do not want and they do not get wasted/thrown in the trash.
Why would we NOT do OVS?
With young students the amount of time it takes to make choices can slow down the efficiency of the service line.
If the site would like to serve all food items to introduce students to different food items & provide all of the food groups with their meal.
CYCLE MENUS
CYCLE MENUS
• Reduce the labor planning
menus
• Reduce plate waste
• Purchasing/planning
• Increase participation
DOCUMENTATION & CREDITING
• Determining how much each component credits can be determined in couple of different ways.• Nutrition Facts label (as we already discussed for grain oz eq).
• CN labels
• USDA Foods – Fact Sheets
• Manufacturer Statements
• Food Buying Guide
• This information is needed to help you with menu planning & to serve as documentation. If/when we come to do a visit, you will need documentation to back up how you know how items credit on your menu.
DOCUMENTATION & CREDITING
Nutrition Facts Label CN Label
DOCUMENTATION & CREDITING
USDA Foods – Facts Label Manufacturers Statement
All USDA Foods Facts Labels can be found online at:
http://www.fns.usda.gov/fdd/nslp-usda-foods-fact-
sheets
DOCUMENTATION & CREDITING
Food Buying Guide
STANDARDIZED RECIPES
•2 or more ingredients
•Consistent product
•Nutrient standards
•Control costs
PRODUCTION RECORDS
• Production records are a
required form that must be used
every day.
• Why?
• To provide staff information regarding
the foods, recipes, and portion sizes
for the meal.
• To record projected and actual
amounts of foods served.
• To provide uniformity
PRODUCTION RECORDS
• What MUST be on a production record:• Food components and other items (ex. condiments).
• Recipe used or food product used (USDA Foods should be indicated with a “C” and processed USDA Foods with a “PC”)
• Planned/projected number of student portions and serving sizes for each grade group
• Planned/projected number of adult portions and serving sizes
• Total amount of food prepared (ex. # of servings, pounds, cans, etc)
• Number of reimbursable meals served
• Actual number of non-reimbursable meals served (adult/a la carte)
• Leftovers and substitutions
SESSIONS ON MENU PLANNING
Menu Planning for Lunch
Wed Aug 2
12:00-1:00pm
Room #2
Menu Planning for Breakfast
Wed Aug 2
2:45pm-3:45pm
Room #2
Impact of New CACFP Meal Pattern on Schools
Wed Aug 2
4:00pm-5:00pm
Room #2
FEDERAL & STATE MISCELLANEOUS REGULATIONS
FEE WAIVERS (PUBLIC SCHOOLS)
Under Illinois law, school districts are required to waive charges for textbooks and other fees for children whose families are unable to afford them, including children eligible for the federal free lunch and breakfast program, and for any other extenuating circumstances for which the school board will waive fees as communicated in its adopted policy (e.g., reduced-price lunch or medical emergencies). [105 ILCS 5/10-20.13 and 34-21.6]
MEAL SERVICE MANDATESIllinois Free Lunch and Breakfast Programs Mandate
Every public school, including public special
education facilities, must have a free lunch program that provides free lunches (and free breakfasts if a school offers breakfast) to students eligible to receive free meals.
School Breakfast Program Mandates
Every public school in which at least 40 percent of the
students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches in October of the preceding year* must operate a school breakfast program.
Every public school in which at least 70 percent of the students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches in October of the preceding year* must operate a breakfast after the bell program. Breakfast after the bell means breakfast is provided to children after the instructional day has officially begun and does not prohibit schools from also providing breakfast before instructional day begins.
Summer Food Service Mandate every public school in which at least 50
percent of the students were eligible for free
and reduced-price lunches in October of the
preceding year* AND has a summer program
operating during the summer months must
provide a summer breakfast and/or lunch
program for the children in that community.
MEAL SERVICE TIMES AND ACCESS
Schools participating in the National School Lunch and/or School Breakfast Programs must offer lunch between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm, unless exempted by USDA through ISBE, and breakfast at or close to the beginning of the child’s school day. Schools are encouraged to provide sufficient lunch periods that give all students enough time to be served and to eat their lunches; at least ten minutes after receiving breakfast and twenty minutes after receiving lunch.
Schools must provide access to meals to all students who are enrolled and present during meal services. Meal(s) must be served on days when school is in session for 300 minutes (5 hours) or more.
MEAL SERVICE DELIVERY OPTIONS
Sponsors have five options for delivery of meal services, the first four of which must be reviewed and approved by ISBE:
1) Food Service Management Company Contract – For more information on this option, refer to the Procurement section of this handbook.
2) Vended Meals Contract – For more information on this option, refer to the Procurement section of this handbook.
3) School-to-School Agreement – For more information on this option, refer to the Procurement section of this handbook.
4) Alternate Agreement – This option is an agreement between the SFAs must state that SFA #1 is accepting total legal and financial responsibility for the newly incorporated School Food Authority’s (SFA #2’s) meal program(s), including not only paying over-claims as a result of administrative reviews, utilization of USDA Foods, and complying with program regulations, but daily meal service.
5) Self-prep – Under this option, the SFA/sponsor of federal meal program purchases, prepares and serves on their own following Child Nutrition Program regulations.
RECORD RETENTION
Documentation related to the school-based child nutrition program must be maintained on file at the site or the SFA office for the current year, plus three years prior. In the case of an audit or investigation which extends beyond the three years plus current year, documents must be kept until the audit or investigation is completed.
Documentation refers to any materials related to certification, verification, benefit issuance and claiming, including but not limited to, Household Eligibility Applications, verification letters to families, verification documents received from families, submitted menus, production records, and procurement.
LOCAL WELLNESS POLICYAll sites that participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) must have a Local Wellness Policy (LWP).
LWP must include information on:
Nutrition education
Physical activity
Foods and drinks sold to students
Food and beverages, not sold, but provided to students
Nutrition promotion
Food and beverage marketing
Informing the community, leadership, and more
ACCOMMODATING CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIESAND/OR SPECIAL DIETARY NEEDS
Sites in our programs may receive requests for changes or accommodations to meals or milk from parents/guardians. We calls this an accommodation.
Some of the accommodation requests will be due to disabilities – these request accompanied by the required documentation MUST be provided at no additional cost.
Some of the accommodation requests will be due to likes, dislikes, preferences, etc – these requests are not required to provided. If the site would like to make these accommodations but it is not due to a disability with the required documentation then the meal must still meet the meal pattern requirements in order to be claimed.
Ex. if a student does not like peaches and would like pineapple instead, the site is not required to make this accommodation, but can if they would like to since pineapple would still meet the meal pattern requirements. However, if someone would like to replace milk with water because they just don’t like milk – water is not nutritionally equivalent to milk therefor, if the site makes this accommodation, they can not claim that meal for reimbursement because it does not meet the meal pattern requirements.
USE OF FUNDS IN THENONPROFIT SCHOOL FOOD SERVICE ACCOUNT
Revenues received by the nonprofit school food service area are to be used only for the operation or improvement of such food service, except that such revenues shall not be used to purchase land or buildings or to construct buildings.
The SFA shall limit its net cash resources to an amount that does not exceed three months average expenditures for its nonprofit school food service.
MEAL PRICING
Children eligible for free meals, can receive one free complete reimbursable meal per meal service.
Children eligible for reduced-price meals must be offered one reimbursable meal at reduced rate. Second meals cannot be claimed for reimbursement. The current maximum prices for reduced-price meal are:
40 cents for lunch
30 cents for breakfast
15 cents for after-school snacks
Paid lunch prices are established using the Paid Lunch Equity calculator.
Schools must use the Paid Lunch Equity (PLE) calculator every year to determine how much they need to increase their price or if they wish to pay funds into the non-profit school lunch account from non-federal funds to cover the increase the calculator will help to determine the amount that is required.
FOOD SAFETY PLAN
SFAs are responsible for developing a comprehensive food safety plan for food preparation and service site(s) that is based Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles and must conform to guidance issued by the USDA.
A school food safety program must include the following elements:
•A Written Food Safety Plan
•Documented Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Each school year, an SFA must obtain two food sanitation inspections for each site where food is prepared or served. For most counties, the local health department will conduct such inspections.
The Food Handler Training Enforcement Act requires all food service area employees or food handlers that work with open/unpackaged foods, food service equipment or utensils, or any food contact surfaces to receive an approved food handler training.
PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS
The standards seek to ensure that State and local school nutrition program personnel in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs have the knowledge and skills to manage and operate the programs correctly and successfully.
Professional Standards include requirements for:
Annual training requirements. The number of required training hours is broken down by job title and full-time vs. part-time employees
Hiring standards for Food Service Directors
Requirements for providing training hours for State Directors
SESSION ON MISCELLANEOUS REGULATIONS
There are a wide variety of sessions that cover in more detail many of the topic areas that I just barely touched on – please refer to your booklet to locate these sessions which will provide more detail about many of these topics.
PROCUREMENT
PROCUREMENT ON THE WEBSITE
PROCUREMENT
Procurement means the process of obtaining goods and/or services in accordance with applicable rules and regulations.
PRINCIPALS OF GOOD PROCUREMENT
Free and Open Competition
Fairness and Integrity
Responsive and Responsible
GENERAL PROCUREMENT REQUIREMENTS
All procurement transactions must be conducted in a manner that provides maximum open and free competition.
Procurement procedures must ensure they do not foster noncompetitive practices between firms, do not create organizational conflicts of interest, and do not restrict or eliminate competition.
Procurement must not place unreasonable requirements on firms, require unnecessary experience, or establish unrealistic bonding requirements.
Cost plus a percentage of purchase is not an allowable system.
TYPES OF PROCUREMENT
Micro Purchase
• Procurement by micro-purchase is the acquisition of supplies or services, the aggregate dollar amount of which does not exceed $3,500.
• Can just purchase item(s)
Informal
• Purchase is below a set threshold (based on the items/type of purchase.
• 3 bids & a buy
Formal
• Purchase is above a set threshold (based on the items/type of purchase)
• Sealed Bids (IFBs) or Competitively bid
ANNUAL LEVELS AT WHICH PROCUREMENT MUST BE FORMAL
TYPES OF FOOD SERVICE
Self-Op
• Participants participate in the SNP with all aspects of the administration of the food service being administered by internal staff. Example – staff employed by the school district purchase the food, prepare the food and serve the food.
Food Service Management
Company (FSMC)
• The sponsor/SFA goes out to bid for a company to run the everyday operations of the food service preparation and service
Vendor
• The sponsor/SFA goes out to bid for a company to prepare the food that will be served. That food is then served by staff employed by the SFA.
School To School Agreement
• The sponsor/SFA works out an agreement with another SFA to receive food from that SFA. An agreement is signed between both parties, laying out the details of the food provided, prices, etc.
SESSIONS ON PROCUREMENT
General Procurement: Contract Options & Requirements
Wednesday Aug 2
12:00-1:00
Room #1
Contracted Food Service Procurement: Process/Approval
& Renewals
Wednesday Aug 2
2:45-3:45
Room #1
Procurement: Reviews
Wednesday Aug 2
4:00-5:00
Room #1
Procurement: Policies & Code of Conduct
Thursday Aug 3
7:30-8:30
Room #3
Farm to School: IL Overview and Local Procurement
Thursday Aug 3
2:00-3:00
Room #2
WINS
WINS SYSTEM
The WINS system houses your sponsor and site applications and is also where you would go to complete your claims for reimbursement each month.
WINS is accessed by logging into the IWAS system. then click on System Listing and then on WINS.
WINS SYSTEM
The Authorized Representative is the individual legally and financially responsible for the administration of the entire school district or School Food Authority.
Updating the Authorized Representative must be done through the Entity Profile System.
Contact Persons – WINS captures a sponsor contact, sponsor claim contact and each site can have a contact person.
Updating contact persons, can be done in WINS by clicking on the paper and pen icon.
WINS SYSTEM
On the applications you provide us with detailed information about your operations and each site. One of the most important things we gather from you is what programs each site wants to be in and what days that site operates.
One of the most common questions we receive, especially around July and August is that the month of June is not showing for someone to claim meals. Most of the time that is because their application says that they operate through May 31st, therefore, the system would not have June available for you to claim. In order to claim June meals, you would need to add those serving days to the application.
Instructions for adding days can be found under the blue and yellow question mark.
WINS SYSTEM
Closing a site or sponsor
The form for closing a site or a sponsor can be found under the blue and yellow question mark.
Adding a site
WINS SYSTEM
Claims for Reimbursement
A Claim for Reimbursement must be submitted through WINS. Submit one claim per site for each month of operation. To ensure prompt payment, it is recommended that claims be submitted by the 10th of the month following the month being claimed.
REVIEWS
ON-SITE REVIEWS
National School Lunch Program (NSLP) regulations require each school food authority (SFA) with more than one site where reimbursable meals are served to annually conduct their own review of each site’s meal count and claiming procedures.
ISBE recommends even districts with one site perform an annual on-site review of meal counting and claiming procedures.
This review must be completed by February 1 of each school year for each site. The individual should be familiar with program rules and should be outside the daily operations to provide an objective look at the operations. The review must be conducted by SFA personnel and may not be conducted by contracted parties who are providing the meal service. A sample copy of the On-Site Review Form is available on our website.
ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEWS
Critical Areas
Access and reimbursement
o Household Eligibility Applications
o Direct Certification
o Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)
o Benefit issuance
o Verification
o Meal counting, claiming and reimbursement
Nutritional quality and meal pattern
o Dietary specifications and nutrient analysis
o Meal components and quantities
o Offer versus Serve (OVS)
The USDA requires ISBE to conduct administrative reviews of all SFAs participating in NSLP. Administrative
reviews are comprehensive on-site evaluations conducted, at a minimum, once every three years.
ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEWS
Resource management
o Nonprofit food service account
o Paid lunch equity
o Revenue from nonprogram foods
o Indirect costs
Other program reviews
o Afterschool Snack Program
o Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program
o Seamless Summer Option
o Special Milk Program
General program compliance
o Civil rights
o Food safety
o Local wellness policy and school meal environment
o Professional standards
o Reporting and recordkeeping
o SBP, SSO and SFSP outreach
o SFA on-site monitoring
o Smart snacks
o Water
ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEWS
A written report will be sent to the SFA detailing the review findings and any fiscal adjustments. The SFA must respond to the review findings with a corrective action plan that defines the processes and procedures the SFA will implement to ensure compliance with program regulations. The corrective actions must be implemented for all sites in the SFA. A follow-up review may be conducted to ensure that identified areas of concern were corrected.
An Administrative Review Checklist is available to assist SFA’s in preparing for an administrative review.
SESSION ON ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEWS
Thursday August 3, 2017
10:00am-11:00am
Room #3
USDA FOODS
USDA FOODS
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) administers the Food Distribution Program (FDP) in Illinois. Through this program, surplus food provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is distributed to eligible recipient agencies.
These donated foods help meet the nutritional needs of children in schools and summer programs.
The USDA purchases and makes available to states a variety of foods. The mix of foods can change annually due to availability, cost of acquisition, and preferences of recipient agencies.
The USDA has successfully expanded the variety and forms of USDA Foods available, with more than 140 products available for distribution. USDA Foods provide approximately 15-20% of the food offered in each school lunch.
WHAT ARE USDA FOODS?
USDA Foods (formerly called commodities) are food items from the USDA that are available for schools that participate in the NSLP.
An allocation amount is determined based on claims and a school can use that allocation to order USDA Foods through our online system.
HOW DO I RECEIVE USDA FOODS?
You must be in the NSLP.
You must complete the annual sponsor and site applications.
Your order must be placed through the Illinois Commodity System (ICS) – there is a set order time each year.
ISBE has a contract with a company to deliver your USDA Foods to you. Schools receiving the food pay the costs of these services directly to the contractor.
WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS WITH USDA FOODS?
One, two or all three of the following can be used.
DoD Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Diversions to Processors
USDA Foods
SESSION ON USDA FOODS
Thursday August 3, 2017
Breakout #6: 8:45am-9:45am
Room #2
QUESTIONS?
CONTACT INFORMATION
Connect with Illinois State Board of Education – Nutrition & Wellness Programs
www.isbe.net/nutrition
800/545-7892
Don’t forget to complete your evaluation for this session!
Thank you