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CANS
March is National
Nutrition Month; make plans to celebrate
now
What better way to kick
off national nutrition month than by celebrating School Breakfast Week during
March 8-12, 2004? The American School Food Service Association’s theme for
breakfast week is “Navigate Your Day with School Breakfast!” The American
Dietetic Association’s theme for National Nutrition Month is “Eat Smart, Stay
Healthy!” Carrying out the message of these slogans will help make your school
cafeteria and classrooms a festive and happening place during this exciting
month!
Whether you choose to
promote nutrition month and eating breakfast at school or at home, you will be
helping your students navigate whatever challenges lie ahead. A
well-balanced breakfast as well as well-balanced daily meals allows children
to think more clearly and feel healthier. A good breakfast can make the
difference between listening to their stomachs instead of listening to their
teachers; achieving good grades versus mindlessly spacing out; running around
during recess or feeling sick on the sidelines. In addition, recent
studies indicate that kids who eat breakfast are more likely to maintain
healthy weights. That is welcoming news during this time of heightened
awareness of childhood obesity. If you are a school that sends home a
monthly calendar, March would be a great time to include nutritional messages
on your calendar to help parents and students become more aware of the
importance good nutrition plays in their daily lives.
Summer Food Service Program needs more local sponsors
In order to feed hungry children during the
summer months, Child and Adult Nutrition Services (CANS) in the SD Dept. of
Education is looking for more local sponsors. Schools and other community
organizations are encouraged to consider offering a summer food service
program for children who will miss the nutrition provided during the school
year by the school food service program. Children who aren’t hungry learn
better, act better, and feel better. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)
helps children get the nutrition they need to learn, play and grow during
summer months when they are out of school. If your school or another local
organization is interested, contact: Cassandra Rupe at (605) 773-3413 or
e-mail at
cassandra.rupe@state.sd.us.
2004 South Dakota
Child Nutrition Program Certification Institute set for June
Who: Child Nutrition
Program Employees
What: 40th Annual Certification Institute
When: Sunday, June 20th - Friday, June 25th
Where: Augustana College, Sioux Falls
2004 registration
information will be mailed to Food Service Directors and Authorized
Representatives at the end of February. Please share this information with
your employees. Also, remember to check the monthly Nutrition Bulletin
for updates.
Department clarifies direct deposit of federal
funds
Funds for child nutrition programs are NOT
included in the direct deposit of federal funds recently initiated by the SD
Department of Education. Public school business officials recently received a
letter stating that all federal funds will be direct deposited in the
future; however, since federal funds for child nutrition programs are received
by organizations that are not public school districts, the funds
for National School Lunch, School Breakfast, Summer Food or Child Care Food
programs will not be included in DOE’s direct deposit initiative.
With the department’s new claim reimbursement
processing system on the horizon, it intends to implement direct deposit of
child nutrition funds at the time the new system goes online.
Questions regarding reimbursement of claims
for child nutrition services can be direct to Bob Adams at 605-773-3456,
bob.adams@state.sd.us.
Monthly edit checks insure accuracy of claims,
avoid delays
Is your business office
performing adequate edit checks prior to submitting the monthly claim for
federal reimbursement dollars? The purpose of monthly edit checks is to help
SFAs identify potential problems in the meal count system and facilitate
accuracy of their monthly claims. It is much better to catch a counting error
prior to submission of a claim to avoid having to pay federal money
back to the State than catching errors after a reporting error has been made.
CFR 210.8 is the federal
regulation which requires school food authorities to compare each of their
school’s daily counts of free, reduced price and paid lunches against the
product of the number of children in each school currently eligible for free,
reduced price and paid lunches, respectively, times an attendance factor.
NSLP Memo #53 gives the
exact information necessary for factors to know in order to be able to perform
adequate edit checks. The end result is the SFA comparing the number of
students in the free, reduced price, as well as paid eligible categories
multiplied by the attendance factor against the number of meals served by
eligibility category on a daily basis. Office personnel responsible for
filing the monthly claims must complete the edit check chart located in NSLP
Memo #53. During a program review the inspectors will request to see the
chart to determine if the SFA has consistently completed the required monthly
edit checks.
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