School Nutrition Newsletter
October 28, 2020
Happy Halloween Week! We hope your week is spooktacular!
Reminders and Updates
Verification Summary Report Postponed
The Verification Summary Report (VSR) requirement is currently on hold for all sponsors until IDOE receives further guidance from USDA.
Due to the SSO and SFSP waivers, many schools will not be submitting an October claim under the purple SNP puzzle piece. This October claim is directly connected with the VSR.
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As soon as USDA releases additional information, IDOE will send out complete guidance for the VSR process for this school year.
- Questions? Contact Allie Caito-Sipe at acaito@doe.in.gov or your field specialist.
Reminders for the School Nutrition Programs
Meal Counting
- As a reminder, meals must be documented individually at the point of service.
- IDOE encourages sponsors to continue to use their point of sale (POS) software system even if implementing SSO.
- The benefit of continuing to use the POS system is that you can ensure that each child receives only one meal per day and you can continue to charge a la carte items correctly to the student’s account.
A La Carte Items
- SSO and NSLP/SBP sponsors may sell a la carte items, but they must meet the Smart Snack requirements.
- A la carte items should be priced to meet the non-program revenue pricing requirements.
- Questions about pricing a la carte items? Contact SCNFinance@doe.in.gov.
Nationwide Waiver to Allow Meal Pattern Flexibility in the Child Nutrition Programs - Extension #5
- Within the Nationwide Waiver to Allow Meal Pattern Flexibility in the Child Nutrition Programs - Extension #5, USDA has now waived the requirement to serve two types of milk options until June 30, 2021.
- Therefore, sponsors are only required to serve one type of milk under SSO and NSLP/SBP.
- This requirement does not apply to SFSP.
- Sponsors do not need to submit a meal pattern waiver in order to use this nationwide flexibility and can implement immediately.
- Check out the nationwide waiver here.
- Questions? Contact your Field Specialist.
Direct Certification Update
New (10/22/2020)! A new set of Direct Certification data has now been added in the DC/DV database.
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All sponsors should download Current Months Matches to see if any new students have been Direct Certified for free or reduced benefits.
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Confirm that the school's Real Time (RT) or Enrollment and Mobility (EM) Report is updated in the STN App Center, this will ensure the DC download includes the most current student enrollment.
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For those without the Effective Date Waiver, any new eligibility matches identified in the DC system can be applied beginning October 1.
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For those with the Effective Date Waiver, begin applying benefits beginning the date the DC download or DC Lookup says the student was first eligible.
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For more information about the Effective Date Waiver, click here.
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In addition to the Standard Match List, ensure the No County, Extended, and Unmatched Case Sibling Matches are being downloaded.
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Questions about DC? Use the DC/DV Help Form and check out DC website for helpful resources.
CNPweb Site Sheet Updates
- Don't forget! Schools that plan to operate under SFSP or SSO this school year due to the USDA waiver extensions must update all site sheets in the SNP/purple puzzle piece.
- Instructions on how to properly update your site sheets for SSO, SFSP, or operating under regular NSLP can be found here.
- Schools should continue to utilize the CNPweb Help Form for assistance with the purple puzzle piece, such as with re-opening site sheets that are in pending approval or questions about errors.
- For questions about Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), please reach out to your field specialist or summermeals@doe.in.gov.
- For questions about claims, please make sure you review IDOE's SSO Site Claims Instructions or reach out to scnfinance@doe.in.gov.
Claiming under the School Nutrition Programs
- Reminder! August claims close on Friday, October 30.
- Sponsors who were approved to retroactively claim meals back to August need to make sure their claims are submitted as soon as possible.
- Sponsors that already filed an SNP claim for August but decided once the new guidance was sent out by USDA to retroactively claim under SFSP, not SNP, need to make sure to revise the SNP site information sheet and zero out that claim.
- Sponsors cannot claim meals under SNP for those sites that will be claimed under SFSP.
- ASSP can be claimed under SNP even if implementing SSO or SFSP.
- Sponsors do still need to continue completing claims when operating a meals program, whether that is SSO, NSLP, or SFSP.
- Detailed instructions on completing claims under SSO can be found here.
- Questions about claiming? Contact SCNFinance@doe.in.gov.
After School Snack Program (ASSP) Only Claims
- When filing an ASSP only claim under the CNPweb's School Nutrition Programs purple puzzle piece, schools are seeing an error for field number 2D (Free Snacks).
The field number 2D (Free Snacks) error is because the Eligibility Information on the site claim needs to be updated.
The Eligibility Information might be grayed out on the site claim for an ASSP only claim but schools still need to enter the paid, free, reduced, and total number of eligible children for the month within the gray boxes (9-12).
For more information on program requirements, check out the ASSP website and Question #13 on Indiana's Q&A.
Questions about claiming? Contact SCNFinance@doe.in.gov.
Questions about program operations? Contact your Field Specialist.
Updated Excess Storage Fees
- IDOE has updated the excess storage fees for school year 2020-2021.
- Excess storage fees are charged for brown box USDA Foods that remain at the state assigned warehouse, Dilgard Foods, Stanz Foodservice, or Wabash Foods past the expire date.
- This date is listed under the inventory tab in the food distribution program green puzzle piece. USDA Foods must be delivered to the school food authority before the expire date in order to avoid this charge. The cost for excess storage fees are in listed in the chart below.
- Questions? Contact Cheryl Moore at cmoore@doe.in.gov.
Grant Opportunities
Fuel Up to Play 60 Grant Opportunities
- Are you looking for ways to fund your Fuel Up to Play 60 program? You're in luck! There are two new grant opportunities from the American Dairy Association Indiana.
- Click here for more information in last week's newsletter. Applications are due next week, on November 6!
No Kid Hungry School Nutrition Grant Opportunity
- No Kid Hungry Indiana is offering a school nutrition grant opportunity to enable districts and schools to maximize the child nutrition programs and other emergency food programs to ensure children and families have access to healthy meals at school and at home.
- More information about the grant can be found here.
Contact Us
Indiana Department of Education - School and Community Nutrition
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this newsletter, please contact Allie Caito-Sipe at acaito@doe.in.gov, call (317) 232-0849, or toll-free at 1-800-537-1142 ext. 20849, or contact Ashley Heller at aheller@doe.in.gov, call (317) 232-0544, or toll-free at 1-800-537-1142 ext. 20544.
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Website: https://www.doe.in.gov/nutrition
Phone: (317) 232-0850
Twitter: @EducateIN