School Breakfast Program

The issue of handling leftover food in school kitchens has been brought to our attention. In some instances there seems to be confusion about the proper procedures related to leftover food.

The United States Department of Agriculture has been a proponent of expanding the national movement to use food recovery and gleaning as an effective means of reducing food waste and helping the hungry for decades.  The NYS Senate (S5664-B) and Assembly (A2409-B) passed a Bill effective March 2018 to amend Education Law Section 305, add

It has come to our attention that some schools are serving and claiming inappropriate cheese items as their meat/meat alternate component. There are certain types of cheese products that are not allowable to count toward the meat/meat alternate component.

Cheese items labeled “imitation cheese” or “cheese product” are not valid types of cheese and cannot be counted as meat/meat alternates. These types of cheese items have never been creditable components in the Child Nutrition Programs.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) published, “Nutrition Standards for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs” on January 26, 2012.  This final rule removes Section I. Formulated Grain-Fruit Products from Appendix A to Part 220 – Alternate Foods for Meals (attached).

The Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs final rule was published on January 26, 2012.  The final rule gives schools the option to offer commercially prepared tofu as a meat alternate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP),  allowing schools to further diversify the sources of meat alternates available to students and meet the dietary needs of vegetarians and culturally diverse groups in schools.  The provision is effective July 1, 2012.

The final rule published on January 26, 2012, requires that frozen fruit served in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) contain no added sugar beginning in School Year (SY)

2012-2013.  Since 2009, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) has reduced the amount of added sugars in packing media for frozen fruits offered to States; however, most of the frozen strawberries, peaches and apricots offered by USDA currently contain added sugars. 

Recent Coordinated Review Effort (CRE) Monitoring Reviews indicate that several schools are allowing adults (teachers and staff) to charge their meals.  In some instances the account balances are significant and are not always paid.  When adults receive meals at no charge, federal funds intended to subsidize the meals for children are inappropriately subsidizing adult meals.  Adults should be paying for their meals at the time of service or setting up pre-paid accounts.

SFAs have asked if the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Food Service Equipment Assistance Grant, the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) Equipment Assistance Grants and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) grant are included in the child nutrition cluster.

The child nutrition cluster consists of the: School Breakfast Program CFDA 10.553, National School Lunch Program CFDA 10.555, Special Milk Program CFDA 10.556 and the Summer Food Service Program CFDA 10.559.

USDA has been asked to address the appropriateness of providing information to contractors auditing school districts' receipt of funds under the FCC's E-Rate fund. The FCC, through the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), administers the E-Rate program. USAC provides discounts to schools to obtain affordable telecommunication and Internet access; the discount rates are based on the percentage of children who are approved for free and reduced price school meals. USAC has contracted with private firms to conduct audits of the discount rates given to schools.

School Food Authorities (SFAs) expending more than $500,000 in Federal dollars must conduct single audits in accordance with OMB Circular A-133.

Both Federal regulations (3052.225) and Circular A-133 mandate that State agencies take immediate corrective action when sub-recipients (SFAs) either do not conduct single audits, or conduct single audits not in accordance with A-133.