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Some people watch the parade go by; others march in it. You be the grand marshal! Are you a leader in your agency? Do folks look to you for advice in the food service program? Be sure you know the program requirements and where you want the program to go, then, start leading the parade to make those changes. There are several guides to help you out and rewards for your efforts.
In other notes, a letter was recently sent to schools to advise them that the HACCP implementation requirements do not have to be fully met by July 1, 2005. The US Dept of Agriculture will provide guidance this spring and expects implementation during the 2005-06 school year. Schools are also beginning the process of implementing wellness policies. Information on those policies can be found at http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/Healthy/wellnesspolicy.html. Enjoy the March Nutrition month activity packets that were provided to Child & Adult Care Food Program and National School Lunch Program agencies.
Certification Institute will be held from June 19-24, 2005 at Augustana College in Sioux Falls. The theme this year is Step Up to the Plate for Child Nutrition. Lodging will be available in the air conditioned, non-smoking dorms of Augustana college. There are a total of eight tracks that are 30 hours each. One track can be completed each year. After completion of track four, participants graduate with a certificate. All tracks qualify for 30 hours of continuing education credits from the School Nutrition Association. Track one includes ServSafe and Child Nutrition Program Basics and must be completed before any other tracks can be taken. Track two covers Healthy Edge 2000, Menu Planning, Commodities and People Skills for Managers. Track three includes Quantity Food Production. Track four is for participants who have completed the first three tracks and it teaches administrative details of the child nutrition program such as ordering and receiving, record keeping, menu planning, storage procedures, quality food production and scheduling. Track five varies from year to year in what is covered. This year it will cover the Basics of Implementing HAACP, the new Wellness Policy Requirements, the HealthierUS Challenge, the new Dietary Guidelines and Blowing Your Own Horn (learning to get credit for the good things you do). Additional tracks include baking, entry level computers and advanced computers. Costs: Early bird registration will be $125.00 per person if registration and payment is received before April 29th, 2005. The cost for payment received after this date is $150.00 per person and the deadline for registration deadline is May 13th. The meal fee for June 19 (supper) through June 24 (lunch) will be $110.00. Lodging for arrival June 19th and departure June 24, will be 105.00 for a single room and $80.00 for double occupancy. More information including details about how to register will be included in a newsletter that will be mailed soon. Contact Amy Richards at 773-4718 or Janelle Peterson at 280-4278 if you have questions.
With spring here the season has started the kick-off of the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). The SFSP will be conducting three training sessions in March. The first session will be held March 29th from 9:00 – 10:00 am CST over the DDN network. This session is for SFSP Seamless Summer or “waiver” participants only. The second session will also be held March 29th from 10:00 – 12:00 am CST over the DDN network. This session if for those experienced sponsors from 2004. The other session will be for new sponsors that have not participated in the program or have new staff responsible for the operation of the SFSP. These sessions will be held March 31st at the State Library Conference Room in Pierre. The sessions will start at 8:30 am CST and continue until 4:00 pm CST. Application/Agreement packets will be mailed out to all interested sponsors the first part of March. Child and Adult Nutrition Services must receive a completed Agreement by April 10th to be considered. This Agreement must also be approved before a sponsor can begin to serve meals at the sites. If you have further questions or need more information, contact Cassandra Rupe at (605) 773-3110 or e-mail at cassandra.rupe@state.sd.us .
Team Nutrition and National Nutrition Month
March is National Nutrition Month and nutrition is very much in the news these days with the new wellness policy requirements for schools starting in school year 2006 and the continual headlines about the childhood obesity epidemic. As a first step in getting your school on track to meet the requirements consider signing up as a Team Nutrition school. To do so, go to the Team Nutrition website and print the enrollment form, complete it and mail it to the address on the webpage. Please also notify us with SD Team Nutrition so we can add you to our mailing and contact list. Team Nutrition is a program that is funded by the US Department of Agriculture and it gives technical assistance to schools and agencies to help them improve their nutrition environment. The SD Department of Education receives funding from Team Nutrition to provide training and technical assistance such as the nutrition class that is being offered across the state on the Dakota Digital Network, Certification Institute that is offered every year in June and to give assistance to individual Team Nutrition schools and agencies in the form of mini-grants, workshops, nutrition curriculum, and technical assistance via telephone and email. Many schools have already been doing great things to improve their nutrition environment. To learn more about what schools in South Dakota have been doing please visit the SD Team Nutrition website and click on Stories from SD Schools. Here you will see that schools sometimes take different approaches to creating a healthier nutrition environment, and other times they share a similar theme. Examples from the site include: offering fruit at concession stands, walking programs, nutrition education in the classroom, nutrition health fairs and festivals, and milk programs. We are in the beginning stages of collecting stories, so check back for more great ideas from schools around the state.
Building for the Future with the CACFP Be on the Lookout… All CACFP agencies will soon be receiving several memos to assist in the implementation of the interim rule that was published on September 1, 2004. Most of these requirements went into effect immediately though time is being provided for the full implementation of the new requirements. Among the new requirements are: 1) To make sure that all key staff participate in annual training, 2) To collect enrollment forms for all children that show the normal days and hours in care, and the normal meals eaten while in care. These enrollment forms must be updated by parents on an annual basis. 3) Sponsors of homes and/or centers must implement edit checks to look for block claiming (any site claiming the same number of any one or more meals for a period of 15 or more days) and if block claiming is found specific procedures must be followed after such a discovery. 4) Sponsors of homes and/or centers are now required to conduct a 5-day reconciliation of meal counts against enrollment forms during every monitoring visit. 5) Household contacts policies must be developed by the State agency to be implemented by sponsoring organizations as required by these policies. The specifics about these new requirements will arrive in the form of numbered memos in the very near future. For more information please contact Melissa Halling at (605) 773-3566 or by email at melissa.halling@state.sd.us.
Winter Fruit Compote Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Annual Recipes 1998; as published in Physical Activities and Healthy Snacks for Young Children; Team Nutrition Iowa;
In a 3½ to 4 quart electric crockery cooker, combine all ingredients. Cover and cook on the low-heat setting for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally. Serve in individual dishes. Makes 13 servings. Snack Idea (1-5 year olds):
Baby Handball Adapted from Physical Activities and Healthy Snacks for Young Children; Team Nutrition Iowa Materials Needed:
Arrange the children in 1 line facing long open area. The objective of this activity is to practice and develop striking skill, striking begins with the hand. Older children can strike with an extension (a racquet or bat). With the ball resting on the ground, hit the ball with either hand. Move the ball from one side of the area to the opposite side and back. Repeat several times. Arrange children in scatter formation with balls scattered on the floor. Ask the children to put the balls in one area by striking the ball(s) with the hand. When all the balls are in that area, ask them to move the balls back to the other area. Repeat.
Scholarships and financial assistance is available for food service and nutrition staff to obtain continuing education so they can remain current with nutrition and food service information and to help them advance their education whether that would be to obtain their GED or to obtain an undergraduate or graduate college degree. For more information about available funding please visit the website of the School Nutrition Association. In addition, there is research money available for School Nutrition Association members to conduct research related to food service or to supervise the research of someone else. The money helps members complete graduate degrees that require a research project, and the research has the potential of making a difference in school nutrition at the local level and on a larger scale. Potential topics of research could be to study different ways to encourage students to eat healthy foods. To learn more about research money that is available for food service and school nutrition staff, please visit:http://www.asfsa.org/continuinged/assistance/.
Team Nutrition: Raising awareness with stories from across South Dakota Team Nutrition as many of you are aware helps schools and agencies across South Dakota with resources, technical assistance and training to facilitate a healthier nutrition environment. One example of a SD Team Nutrition activity is the mini-grants that were awarded to 14 schools/agencies to complete nutrition and physical activity projects and programs such as gardens, walking programs, staff training, tasting session of new fruits and vegetables and nutrition education in the classroom. The nutrition DDN class that is being broadcast to 20 sites across SD is another example of a Team Nutrition project. Karlys Wells, the new Cooperative Extension Team Nutrition Coordinator at SDSU, has mailed a survey to all schools or districts that have signed up as a Team Nutrition School over the last 10 years to find out how things are going and what barriers they face in trying to improve the nutrition environment. This mailing went to the listed team leader that we have or in cases where we are not sure any more who the team leader is, it was sent to the school with simply the words “Team Leader” on it. If you receive this, please complete it and return it to her as this will help us better meet the needs of schools and agencies in SD. This information will help us when we talk to the media about what the barriers to change are and what schools in SD are doing. We are collecting stories from schools and agencies that are signed up as Team Nutrition schools across the state. Kris Sands, a registered dietitian from Garretson, is collecting these stories so we can put them on our website. This is a great way for schools to learn from each other. Feel free to check these stories out at the TEAM Nutrition page by clicking on the link called “Stories from SD Schools”.
Food Handling/Serving Procedures for Second Servings If students are allowed to come back to the serving line or food bar for a second serving, what food handling procedures should be followed? The first thing to keep in mind is that once the food tray is provided to the child or student, it must be assumed that the tray may become contaminated with bacterial or viral organisms. Therefore, care must be taken by the food worker to prevent possible cross-contamination between the trays as well as between the foods being dispensed. There are many variations to the serving of a second helping especially dealing with the types of food. For example, if a student is coming back for an extra cookie, this can easily be dispensed to the tray by simply using a proper utensil, such as a tongs, use of napkin or deli paper, or the food handler may dispense the food using a food grade glove on his/her hand. The important thing to remember is that when a dispensing utensil is used, it cannot come into contact with the tray. This would also apply to the food worker who uses the gloves. The glove should not contact the tray. For foods that are being dispensed using a utensil, the key issue is again not to touch the tray with the dispensing utensil. Quite often foods that are somewhat sticky, such as macaroni and cheese, stick to the spoon or ladle and food workers have a tendency to tap the utensil against the tray to dislodge the food product. This cannot be done. At no time should the dispensing utensil come into contact with the student’s food tray. In this case, the second serving should be dropped onto the student’s tray with the utensil never coming into contact with the tray. The food may simply be poured onto the tray or in those cases where the food needs some type of assistance to come off the utensil, another utensil should be used to push or move the food off the utensil onto the tray. Taking another cleaned and sanitized dish would be a good policy, but it would not be necessary if the food worker simply followed the above recommendations. Many schools are now implementing a daily food bar. If students are allowed to take a second serving from an unsupervised, self-serve food bar, cleaned and sanitized plates or food trays must be provided.
Doug
Kozel
Phytochemical of the month: Flavonoids You knew that oranges were good for you, but did you know that they have over 170 phytochemicals? Of these, over 60 are flavonoids also known as polyphenols. The category, polyphenols includes flavonoids and nonflavonoids. Isoflavones which are in soy beans are a type of flavonoid. It may sound confusing, but all you really need to remember is that they are all a type of phytochemical. Phytochemicals are natural chemicals found in plants that have lots of good properties that help keep us healthy. So, back to the orange that has over 60 types of flavonoids. Flavonoids have anti-inflammatory, antitumor and antioxidant abilities. They also inhibit blood clot formation. Tangeretin and nobiletin are two different flavonoids in oranges that are known for their ability to inhibit the growth of tumor cells and that are capable of activating a detoxifying system of enzymes. What are some other food sources of flavonoids? Tea, wine, fruits including citrus fruits, vegetables, and soybeans. See the table below from the US Department of Agriculture’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.
For more information about flavonoids and other phytochemicals in oranges visit the following websites that were used for reference for this article: |
