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Resource | Webinars/Videos Videos: Food Safety Flashes

A Flash of Food Safety is an educational video series designed to help busy school nutrition professionals understand and practically apply safe food practices. The videos, available in English and Spanish, address five food safety topics: Handwashing: Why to Wash Your Hands, Handwashing: How to Wash Your Hands, Calibrating a Thermometer: Ice Water Method, Calibrating a Thermometer: Boiling Water Method, and Active Cooling with a Chill Stick.

12/27/2016
Resource | Research and Data | Assessing/Improving Operations Direct Certification in the National School Lunch Program Report to Congress: State Implementation Progress, SY 2014-15

This report responds to the requirement of PL 110-246 to assess the effectiveness of state and local efforts to directly certify children for free school meals. Direct certification is a process conducted by the states and by local educational agencies to certify eligible children for free meals without the need for household applications. 

12/02/2016
Resource | Research and Data | Assessing/Improving Operations Second Access, Participation, Eligibility, and Certification Study (APEC II): Estimating and Validating Statistical Models for Updating Estimates of Improper Payments in NSLP and SBP

Statistical models were designed to estimate national improper payments due to certification error on an annual basis using district-level data. This enables FNS to update its estimates of national improper payment rates for the NSLP and SBP in future years without having to conduct full rounds of primary data collection.

11/29/2016
Resource | Policy Memos Meals Provided to Volunteers: Revised

The memorandum outlines the conditions under which eligible recipient agencies can provide meals to volunteers staffing distribution sites and charge as a TEFAP administrative expense.

10/26/2016
Basic page A Quick Guide to CACFP Flexibilities

CACFP challenges us to streamline and reduce paperwork, while continuing to improve CACFP management and integrity

09/30/2016
Resource | Policy Memos Modifications to Accommodate Disabilities in the School Meal Programs

This policy memorandum includes important updates to requirements related to accommodating children with disabilities participating in the school meal programs.

09/27/2016
Resource | Research and Data | Assessing/Improving Operations Approaches to Measuring Erroneous Payments in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program At The State Level

The second Access, Participation, Eligibility and Certification Study (APEC II) included a follow-on report that provided statistically-derived state-level estimates of school meals erroneous payments. However, while APEC II provided a rough indicator of relative risk for groups of states (e.g., higher than average, about average, lower than average), it was not a state-representative direct measure, and creating actual annual measures of such erroneous payments at the state level using APEC methodology is cost-prohibitive. This report explores alternative approaches to developing measurement-based state-specific estimates that are responsive to year-to-year changes in the actual underlying rate in each state. It also provides cost and burden estimates for the implementation of each of these methods.

08/29/2016
Resource | Federal Register Notices National School Lunch, Special Milk, and School Breakfast Programs, National Average Payments/Maximum Reimbursement Rates (July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017)

 This Notice announces the annual adjustments to the “national average payments,” the amount of money the federal government provides states for lunches, afterschool snacks and breakfasts served to children participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs; to the “maximum reimbursement rates,” the maximum per lunch rate from federal funds that a state can provide a school food authority for lunches served to children participating in the National School Lunch Program; and to the rate of reimbursement for a half-pint of milk served to non-needy children in a school or institution which participates in the Special Milk Program for Children.

08/05/2016
Resource | Federal Register Notices CACFP: National Average Payment Rates, Day Care Home; Food Service Payment Rates, and Administrative Reimbursement Rates for Sponsoring Organizations of Day Care Homes (July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017)

This notice announces the annual adjustments to the national average payment rates for meals and snacks served in child care centers, outside-school-hours care centers, at-risk afterschool care centers, and adult day care centers; the food service payment rates for meals and snacks served in day care homes; and the administrative reimbursement rates for sponsoring organizations of day care homes, to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index.

08/05/2016
Resource | Research and Data | Assessing/Improving Operations Regional Office Review of Applications (RORA) for School Meals 2015

This is the 11th in a series of annual reports that examines the administrative accuracy of eligibility determinations and benefit issuance for free or reduced-price meals in the National School Lunch Program.

07/01/2016
Page updated: October 14, 2021