Tidbits From
Sandra
Eleanor Roosevelt said it: “Nobody can make you feel
inferior without your permission.” Sometimes things people say or do are
intended to make one feel inferior – but you can rise above that. If you let
it make you feel inferior, her words are so true. You can rise above it by
following her advice and by not retaliating in same way.
Legislation for child nutrition is starting to speed up. The bills were to be
marked up in subcommittee and full committee in the first part of March. It
will be very interesting to follow this over the next few weeks.
Kids are
starting to get restless and will soon start to count down the days until
school is out. What are you doing to keep their interest in the meal
program? Changing the menu? Offering some new foods? As the seasons
change, the foods available at best price change, too. Stay up with those
changes so you can offer variety at reasonable prices. Remember to continue
to offer plenty of fruits and vegetables.
A new
production from USDA will be arriving at the schools this spring to help
promote this consumption: “Fruits and Vegetables Galore”. While an advance
copy has not appeared in the CANS office yet, we hear good things about this.
Take a look and implement as much of it as you can. You are encouraged to use
your fresh produce entitlement from the commodities as fully as possible.
March is
nutrition month – many good education materials are available to help make
education points on menus, with bulletin boards, and in classes. Also, many
questions abound. Here are a couple we recently ran across:
Q: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it.... don't waste
them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will
not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your
car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.
Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: You're not listening. Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In
fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for
you? While this may not be exactly sound advice, we have to have a good laugh
once in a while, too, to survive.
Have a
good spring – start planning for the upcoming nutrition opportunities.
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Table of Contents
Building for the Future with
the CACFP
Upcoming
Training Events –
Start planning now to attend the annual Child and Adult Care
Food Program / Summer Food Service Program training during the month of May
2004. The dates and locations will be announced in late March. Be watching
for more information in your mailbox. Make sure to return the needs
assessment survey to give your input on the topics we cover. For more
information please contact Melissa Halling at (605) 773-3566 or by email at
melissa.halling@state.sd.us.
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Table of Contents
2004 South Dakota Child Nutrition Program Certification Institute
The 40th annual South Dakota Child Nutrition Program
Certification Institute will be held June 20-25, 2004 in Sioux Falls at the
Augustana College campus. All tracks are 5-day courses and qualify for 30
continuing education credits from the American School Food Service Association
(ASFSA). All tracks have a size limit and will be filled on a first come,
first served basis. In order to guarantee your enrollment, send in your
registration form and payment as soon as possible!
Registration Information was mailed
out the last week of February to Food Service Directors and Authorized
Representatives. If you have not received a packet by March 12th,
please call 605-773-4718 to let us know. You can also print the information
and registration form from the Certification Institute link on the CANS
website at http://www.state.sd.us/deca/CSCF/CANS/.
Continue to watch the monthly
Nutrition Bulletin and CANS website for Certification Institute updates!
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Hill City Celebrates School Lunch
The Hill City Lunch Ladies donned
animal print aprons and head pieces to help celebrate the National School
Lunch Week activities October 14-17, 2003. Students colored pictures to
decorate the lunch room and prizes were awarded at the end of the week.
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Professional Development Opportunities
National Food Service Management
Institute
Satellite Seminar: Coaching Employees: Will you make a difference?
April 28, 2004
2:00pm-3:00pm
Viewers will be able to identify the
coaching relationship as a partnership or joint venture. Ultimately the
following objectives will be realized:
- Strengthening employee skills;
- Increasing productivity of the employee, the tram, and
the Child Nutrition Program;
- Enabling employees to excel and achieve success
If you are interested in viewing this
seminar, contact Sarah Straight at 773-4718 by March 31st.
The SD Department of Health (DOH) is
planning to downlink two satellite conferences in the coming months across the
state to approximately 6-10 sites. More information will be sent when it
becomes available. Brochures will also be posted on the DOH website calendar
at
www.state.sd.us/doh. There will be no charge for these conferences. Save
the following dates:
April
29, 10 am-4 pm CT, “Metabolic Syndrome: Prevention and Treatment
Challenges”. The goals of this conference will be to: --provide a critical
review of research efforts to define, diagnose, and characterize the primary
contributors to the Metabolic Syndrome
--Outline
prevention and therapeutic strategies to alleviate the physiological
consequences of the Metabolic Syndrome by integrating physical activity,
nutritional, pharmacological, and psychological approaches
--Identify
future directions for prevention and treatment of the Metabolic Syndrome
June 2,
12-4 pm CT, “Food Allergies in Children: Prevention and Intervention”. This
conference will alddress diagnosis and treatment of food allergies in
children. There will also be a discussion of food allergies and school
policies.
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CANS Welcomes
Janet Penticoff
Janet Penticoff recently joined the
Child and Adult Nutrition Services staff as senior secretary taking over
responsibilities for Elaine Scott in the commodity program.
She is originally from Murdo, SD and
graduated from Mitchell Technical Institute in Business Office Careers. She
has been employed with state government for approximately 15 years developing
many of her professional office skills.
In her off hours Janet enjoys cooking
and gadgets and keeping busy as a Pampered Chef Consultant along with playing
volleyball and darts and spending time with family and friends.
Janet is looking forward to her new
responsibilities and working with everyone in the future.
Welcome aboard Janet!
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Guidance for Homeless Children in the School Nutrition Programs
In a growing number of circumstances,
schools have enrolled students who are living in households other than their
traditional family. It is sometimes difficult to know how to determine their
eligibility for free and reduced price meals. The circumstances can vary
greatly. While the Eligibility Guidance for School Meals Manual
answers many of those questions, school personnel do and should contact Child
and Adult Nutrition Services to discuss the unusual circumstances and
determine the best method for handling these situations.
The most recent issue is homeless
children. Numbered memo NSLP – 75 was issued in December 2002. It addresses
the definition of “homeless” and how school officials and others may
streamline the procedures for the approval and documentation of free lunch and
breakfast or free milk eligibility for homeless children after consultation
with the school’s homeless coordinator in accordance with USDA policy.
A copy of the memo should be in the
agency’s numbered memo binder. It can also be accessed online at
http://www.state.sd.us/deca/CSCF/CANS/index.htm at the “Forms and
Documents” bullet. Look for the numbered memos section, find the number 75 in
the NSLP column and click on the title to read the memo. If there are
additional questions, please contact staff members in Child & Adult Nutrition
Service at 605-773-3413.
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Justice for All
Do you know why CANS staff and Department of Public Safety
inspectors always look to see if you have a “Justice for All” poster properly
posted? All school child nutrition programs are partially funded by the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Services
(FNS). Therefore the office of Civil Rights primary mission is to prevent and
eliminate unlawful discrimination and to ensure equal treatment and
opportunities for beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries of federal
assistance provided by USDA and FNS.
Each year in the annual Agreement
Packet a fresh poster is included for the purpose of replacing old torn or
discolored posters from the previous year as well as have the most current
version of the nondiscrimination statement. The color of the poster changes
from year to year for easier identification by reviewers. Also note in the
lower left hand corner, this year’s poster should have a ‘Fall 2003’ date. It
is important to update the posters as there are times when some wording in the
statement has been made or an update in the address line.
The nondiscrimination statement should
read as follows:
“… AND
JUSTICE FOR ALL In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of
Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the
basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability.
To file a
complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights,
Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C.
20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal
opportunity provider and employer.”
At one time it was required to have
the statement on all materials the schools/agencies disseminated to the
public, including the monthly menu calendars. Since the statement is included
on the application form in the school lunch packet families receive at the
beginning of their school year, the requirement to have the statement on each
menu calendar has gone away. However, if the school does want to include the
statement on the menu calendar or any other materials a couple things must be
kept in mind:
1.)
The statement must be printed in full, in the same
size font as the text of the document page it is printed on.
2.)
If the material is too small to permit the full
statement to be included, the material needs to at minimum include the
statement, in print size no smaller than the text, that “This institution is
an equal opportunity provider.”
Be sure the poster is posted at
reading level for the persons going through the food service meal lines. The
poster is intended to be read by the customers so posting it on the cook’s
bulletin board somewhere in the kitchen is not the most appropriate place. If
you have Justice for All posters that do not have the ‘Fall 2003’ date in the
lower left corner please remove or destroy the posters as they may have
outdated wording. If you need a new poster be sure to contact CANS.
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SDSFSA
Sponsors Legislative Breakfast
Members of the South Dakota School Food Service Association
(SDSFSA) executive board traveled from all corners of the state to be in
Pierre on January 29th and 30th. At 5:30 the group met
at the SD State Library Conference room to host a forum titled, “Feeding
America’s Kids”. A light supper was served and about ten legislators were
able to attend. The forum began with Joni Davis giving a brief history of the
USDA child nutrition programs, program issues for 2004, explaining the
breakfast and lunch patterns, as well as how the meal patterns are influenced
by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. She had sent out a survey to the SD
legislators and reported back to the forum what the legislators had indicated
as their concerns regarding child nutrition programs in SD. The keynote
speaker for the evening was Dr. Christine Hart, MD, Family Physician. She
gave an excellent presentation on “What Should We Eat – and What Should We
Feed Our Kids”. The legislators and food service members asked some very good
questions regarding obesity and diet patterns.
The following morning the SDSFSA
executive team met at 6:30 a.m. to prepare breakfast buffet tables in the
Capitol building in the legislative lobby halls for each the Senate and the
House. This was an opportunity to showcase typical school breakfast items and
actually meet and talk with our South Dakota legislators. One of the most
conversational breakfast items were the ‘banana-grams’ which had been prepared
the evening before by the SDSFSA executive team. Are you wondering what a
‘banana-gram’ is? It is simply a banana, whose outside peel has been
embellished with words such as, “SDSFSA – Navigate Your Day with School
Breakfast”, or “SDSFSA – Child Nutrition is our Business!” etc.. The buffet
tables were decorated in a nautical theme with Grab N Go food items to carry
out the 2004 School Breakfast theme. Approximately 125 people stopped by for
a quick chat and to pick up some breakfast. Following the breakfast the
SDSFSA executive team had a board meeting and all members were on their way
back home by the noon hour. The temperature was very cold those two days but
it did not blizzard this year and the two days were considered a big success.
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Nutrition Bites
CONSIDERING A POPULAR DIET PLAN?
CHECK IT OUT
Diet books routinely top the
best-seller lists, and new plans seem to appear every day. Do they work?
Will any of them be right for you?
If you are considering one or more
popular diets or exercise plans, you owe it to yourself and your health to
make sure the diet claims are valid. Ask yourself: Does the diet plan …
- Promise a quick
fix?
- Encourage or require you to stop eating certain foods,
food groups, or products?
- Rely on a single study as the basis for its
recommendations?
- Contradict recommendations of reputable health
organizations?
- Identify “good” and “bad” foods?
- Just sound too good to be true?
If you answered yes to any of the
questions, keep looking for a plan that is backed by solid science, lets you
keep eating your favorite foods and allows for flexibility.
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Kids in the Kitchen
Blueberry Smoothie
Recipe from North American Blueberry Council
2
cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
1 cup pineapple juice
8 oz. low-fat vanilla yogurt
2 tsp. sugar
6 servings
1.
If using frozen
blueberries, slightly thaw.
2.
In the
container of an electric blender, combine berries, juice, yogurt, and sugar.
3.
Blend until
smooth, about one minute.
4.
Serve
immediately.
Snack Idea (1-5 year olds):
½ cup Blueberry
Smoothie
7 animal crackers
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Kids on the Move
Turtle
and Rabbit – Activity from Physical Activities and Healthy Snacks
for Young Children – Team Nutrition
Iowa
Arrange the children in scatter formation.
Explain that turtles move slowly and rabbits move very fast. Ask the children
to move slowly. Once they can demonstrate slowly, ask them to demonstrate
fast.
To
play the game you will call out 
“turtle”
or 
“rabbit”.
When you say “turtle” the children move slowly and continuously until you say
“rabbit”. When you say “rabbit” the children move fast until you say
“turtle”. Repeat alternating “rabbit” and “turtle”.
Focus the children on listening and following directions. The point of the
game is for the children to move all the time (either fast or slow).
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Survey
of Nutrition Bulletin Readership
The goal of the Nutrition Bulletin is
to provide timely relevant information related to the operation of the child
nutrition programs administered by Child and Adult Nutrition Services in the
SD Department of Education. To better meet the needs of our customers the
online bulletin began with the December 2003 issue and paper copies no longer
being distributed. Each month all authorized representatives and food service
directors for child nutrition programs with a current e-mail address are
notified when the bulletin goes online and includes the link to the online
Bulletin at
http://www.state.sd.us/deca/CSCF/CANS/NBulletin/. Please check it out if
you haven’t already had a chance to do so.
Now that a few months have passed we
would like your assessment. The survey is being sent both electronically as
well as in paper format to authorized representatives and food service
directors in all child nutrition programs. You need only respond one time to
either version. Be assured that all replies are not identifiable and will be
confidential unless you choose to identify yourself. Please take time to
complete this survey and fax it back to Attn: Jean Schuurmans, Child & Adult
Nutrition Services, 605-773-6846 or submit the online survey. Your
response by June 1st will be appreciated.
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