Articles in the January 2007 Issue
- A Note From Sandra
- Building for the Future with the CACFP
- Payment Date Changes for CANS Reimbursement
- Mark Your Calendar Now for the June 2007 Certification Institute
- Food Safety Posters – Caution
- MyPyramid Corner: Fats and Oils
- New Form for On-Site Monitoring:
- Introducing Commodity Whole Grain Products
- Healthy Cuisine for Kids Seminars to be Offered by NFSMI
- Resource Corner: Nutrition Facts Labels
- Kids on the Move
- Kids in the Kitchen
- Food For Thought
- A Wish for You in 2007
A Note From Sandra:
As
the New Year starts, we often think of resolutions. Sometimes we
only think about them, sometimes we actually make a resolution and
start on
it, and sometimes we actually carry it out. According to the website
www.about.com, the top three
resolutions are time with family and friends, fitness, and weight
reduction. Sure sounds like the areas we work with!
Their tips to carry out resolutions include: Be realistic, Plan ahead, Outline your plan, Make a "pro" and "con" list; Talk about it; Reward Yourself ; Track your progress; and Don't Beat Yourself Up. Two of my favorites are:
Stick to it: Experts say it takes about 21 days for a new activity, such as exercising, to become a habit, and 6 months for it to become part of your personality. (So why doesn’t it take us 21 days to break that new habit?!)
Keep trying: If your resolution has totally run out of steam by mid-February, don't despair. Start over again! There's no reason you can't make a "New Year's Resolution" any time of year.
Resolutions might also include what we do at work – keep those temperature logs, add a choice to the menu, introduce a new food that includes whole grain or legumes, talk to the students about menus, increase customer service, or put nutrition education information in the school newsletter, on the website, or on a bulletin board.
I wish you a sack-ful of willpower and “stick-to-it-iveness” to carry through with your resolutions.
Jay Leno said it: “Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average. Which means you've met your New Year's resolution.” Obviously, that’s not where we want to be.
Cavett Roberts said it: “Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.”
Building
for the Future with the CACFP
CACFP Basics
Block Claim Edit Checks in the Child and Adult Care Food Program – The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) reimburses centers and homes for serving nutritious meals to the children or adults in their care. Many different facilities operate the CACFP, all sharing the common goal of bringing nutritious meals and snacks to participants (Child Care Centers, Family Child Care Homes, After-School Care Programs, Shelters, and Adult Day Care Centers). Our CACFP Basics this month will cover the topic of block claim edit checks.
All sponsoring organizations (SO) of centers and/or day care homes are required to have an edit check to be implemented while processing the claim for reimbursement from each of the facilities sponsored. This edit check must detect block claiming (as defined below) by any facility. If block claiming is detected at any site, the SO must ensure that the facility submitting the block claim receives an unannounced visit within 60 days of the discovery of the block claim. If, in the course of conducting this review, the SO determines that there is a logical explanation for the facility to regularly submit a block claim, the SO must note this in the facility’s review file and is not required to conduct an unannounced visit after other block claims detected during the current year. The same process would need to be repeated for each block claim submitted in recurrent Program years.
A logical explanation must be specific and reasonable. It is not sufficient to state, for example, “all children come to day care every day, and no children ever get sick.” This is probably not valid. It is possible that there will be a few legitimate cases where sites will continually submit block claims but there must be a specific and logical explanation documented on the unannounced monitoring review form completed within the next 60 days or another unannounced visit must be conducted within 60 days of the next block claim submitted.
According to 7 C.F.R. 226.2 block claiming is defined as a claim for reimbursement submitted by a facility on which the number of meals claimed for one or more meal type (breakfast, lunch, snack, or supper) is identical for 15 consecutive days of operation within a claiming period.
For example, XYZ Daycare claims 30 lunches each Monday through Friday for 3 weeks. They do not operate on weekends. This would amount to 15 consecutive days of operation.
Another example might be MNO Daycare operates Monday through Saturday. They claim 50 afternoon snacks every day for 4 days in week 1 (Wednesday through Saturday), for 6 days in week 2 (Monday through Saturday) and 5 days in week 3 (Monday through Friday). This would amount to 15 consecutive days of operation.
If you would like further guidance or have additional questions related to this matter, please call our office at (605) 773-3413.
Payment Date Changes for CANS Reimbursement
Starting with the January Child & Adult Nutrition Services (CANS) payment, agencies will be getting their ACH payment on the 22nd of each month. We are implementing a change to help us process claims more accurately and efficiently. Claims will still need to be in by the 10th of each month.
You can find the new payment schedule at the following website: http://www.doe.sd.gov/ofm/payments/.
Please contact Cody Stoeser at 773-3456 or by email at cody.stoeser@state.sd.us if you have any questions.
Mark Your Calendar Now for the June 2007 Certification Institute
Save
the date for Certification Institute in Sioux Falls in June. It
will be in Sioux Falls at Augustana College from Sunday, June 24 to
Friday, June 29. If you didn’t attend last year, you missed a lot
of fun, getting to know others from around the state and learning
valuable skills to take back to your school. Certification
Institute is a great way to get continuing education credit while
learning how to make meals that are healthy and attractive for the
students at your school. Make plans to attend this year and
remember to pack your tennis shoes for some fun physical activity,
your sense of adventure for meeting new people and an open mind to
soak up new information.
An establishment called the South Dakota Food Service Compliance Center has sent letters to some agencies in South Dakota. The letters list the requirements for hand washing and offers to sell posters to "improve compliance with the South Dakota Administrative Code's hand washing requirement...".
Please be aware that the South Dakota Food Service Compliance Center is not a government agency and is not charged with implementing any of the Child Nutrition Program requirements here in South Dakota. The letter does state that this organization is a non-governmental agency and also states that posters may be available free from the issuing governmental agencies.
This is provided to raise your awareness. If you would like more information, you could do a computerized search for "Food Service Compliance Center." The Office of Attorney General issued a very similar warning in December a year ago to businesses that had received a letter about purchasing labor law posters. You can read the article “Attorney General Larry Long Reminds Employers to be Cautious of Labor Law Poster Scams” at www.state.sd.us/attorney/applications/documents/oneDocument.asp?DocumentID=916
Of course, you may order posters if you choose; however, you should determine if this is the best price just as you would for making any other purchase.
Some websites that have posters that can be downloaded and printed:
General instruction about hand washing: http://www.state.sd.us/doh/flu/Documents/HandWashposter.pdf
Hand washing and food preparation in the home environment:
http://www.fightbac.org/images/pdfs/clean.pdf.
Posters with a focus on child care agencies are available to download from USDA site at http://healthymeals.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=14&tax_level=3&tax_subject=264&topic_id=1269&level3_id=5173
Posters that focus on School Food Service are available to download from USDA site at
If you have access to printing decals, a free one is available from Food Safety Inspection Service at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/pubs/hwdecal.htm
MyPyramid Corner:
Fats and Oils
Butter versus margarine versus lard versus olive oil. Does it seem that the news constantly changes about which ones are bad for you? You have probably heard that trans fats are being replaced at restaurants such as Red Lobster and Olive Garden and the board of health in New York City has voted to ban trans fats in restaurants in the Big Apple. So how do nutrition experts determine which fats and oils are good for you and how are you supposed to know which news story is right?
The MyPyramid and Dietary Guidelines are two documents that give us guidance. The MyPyramid recommendations are based upon the Dietary Guidelines for Americans which are based upon the DRIs (Dietary Reference Intakes) which contain many volumes of scientific data that give evidence about how much we all need of each vitamin, mineral, and protein, fat and carbohydrates as well as which types of fat are good for us and which cause problems.
The MyPyramid is a great starting point for anyone who wonders what food they should eat, how frequently they can eat the food and how large of portion size will fit into their calorie salary for the day. The MyPyramid has an interactive feature in which people can enter age, gender, and activity level and learn how many calories, whole grains, dark green veggies, legumes and other foods they should eat per day and per week. The MyPyramid indicates that most of the fat in our diet should come from fish, nuts, and vegetable oils. The MyPyramid is available at www.mypyramid.gov.
The MyPyramid and the dietary guidelines indicate we should eat foods without added fats when possible and that we should avoid saturated fat, cholesterol, and trans fat as they are all linked to higher rates of heart disease. What foods have saturated fat and cholesterol in them? Only animal products have cholesterol and saturated fats are found in animal products as well as a few plant oils such as coconut oil and palm oil. In order to reduce the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol in your diet, work towards eating very lean red meat, eat fish twice a week, drink nonfat milk, eat nonfat yogurt and cottage cheese, and eat hard cheese such as cheddar in small quantities since it is high in fat. Use plant oils for baking, frying or cooking and don’t use lard or trans fats.
In addition, eat non-animal protein sources more frequently because they don’t have saturated fat or cholesterol in them. Examples are dried beans, nuts and seeds (they have good fats in them), and veggie protein sources such as tofu or veggie burgers. The American Heart Association recently suggested that people eat more alternative meat products to lower their risk of heart disease.
So does that mean that you can’t have a steak? No, of course not, but perhaps instead of a 12 ounce steak for dinner, you could cut it into 3 pieces and share it with a couple of others. That way you would each have 3-4 ounces of steak, which is much closer to the recommended portion size for meat. And perhaps steak and other animal foods high in fat such as cheddar cheese and breakfast sausage can become occasional foods instead of every day foods in your diet.
So now perhaps you are wondering about fried foods and cakes and pastries that are made with butter, lard, margarine or trans fats….what to do, what to do? Well for starters, eating fried foods, cakes, and pastries less often would be a great step towards better health. Also, eating smaller portion sizes of fried foods and dessert items would cut back on the amount of unhealthy fat in our diet and the tendency to eat too many calories. Butter has saturated fat in it, but if you really like butter better than other fats, perhaps you can start by eating it less frequently or in smaller portions or cutting out saturated fat elsewhere in your diet to make up for the butter you eat. Look for cake, pie, and cookie recipes that don’t use solid fats but instead use liquid oils. Try eating vegetables without added butter. Some of it comes down to deciding that healthy tastes good and getting used to eating foods that are prepared differently than you are used to. It may also help if you remember that your heart will have a better chance of ticking for a long time if you take good care of it by what you eat.
Trans fats have been in the news a lot and many manufacturers are finding ways to replace them in baked goods that you purchase. The dietary guidelines indicate that it is more important to reduce saturated fat levels in foods than trans fats because Americans eat a lot more saturated fat than they do trans fat and they are both bad for you. So substituting lard for trans fat for example would not be a good idea. If you use margarine, be sure to check the label to see if there are trans fats in it and if so find a different product to use that doesn’t have any trans fats in it.
The naturally occurring fats in nuts and seeds are very healthy for you. The thing to remember about nuts and seeds is that they do have quite a few calories in only a small amount, so remember to read the label to see how many will fit into your calories for the day and not overdo it when munching on them or you may find yourself getting too many calories. Finally, just a quick note about omega 3 fatty acids. They are a type of fat that is very healthy. Walnuts and flax seed are both an excellent source of omega 3 fatty acids. Fatty fish such as salmon and trout are a good source of omega 3 fatty acids.
For more information about choosing healthy fats, please read chapter 6 of the Dietary Guidelines which is available online at http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/html/chapter6.htm
The American Heart Association has tips for selecting lean protein sources and choosing fats and oils that are low in saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol. More information can be found at http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1200010
New Form for On-Site Monitoring:
February 1st is the deadline for completing the required annual oversight of the meal and claiming methods for all schools and agencies that have more than one building or site where meals are served. The purpose of performing the monitoring worksheet is to ensure the accuracy of meal counts and daily procedures. At the present time on-site monitoring is not a breakfast program requirement but is encouraged as a good business practice.
The Authorized Representative should refer to NSLP Memo number 52.1 for the instructions and worksheet to be used for each serving site visit. The memo has been updated and has 2 attachments. Attachment 1 is the required check sheet that needs to be completed for all schools and agencies that has more than one serving site. Attachment 2 is a worksheet that is an optional form that can be used at any time during the school year, with no deadline, that can help assess all program areas. The new updated NSLP Memo #52.1 can be quickly assessed by clicking on the following link: http://doe.sd.gov/oess/cans/nslp/formsdocs.asp.
If the review discloses any problems with a site’s meal counting or claiming procedure, the SFA shall ensure that the site will implement corrective action. If corrective action is needed, the SFA is required to conduct a follow-up review within 45 days of the first review to determine that the corrective action resolved the problems. The on-site monitoring review worksheet needs to be kept on file with other records for the program year. During a Coordinated Review Effort (CRE) review the worksheet(s) will be verified for completion for each serving site.
Introducing Commodity Whole Grain Products
Many schools are looking to add whole grain products to their menus. Schools count on the products ordered through the state commodity processing to stretch their tight budgets and be highly nutritious. This can be a delicate balancing act when you are food service director. Getting highly nutritious foods at an affordable price can be a challenge.
Child and Adult Nutrition Services is striving to make this challenge easier for many school districts. One way is by making the foods available through the commodity processing program healthier and more nutritious. The foods available through commodity processing also come at reduced cost for school districts throughout the state. Recently, Tyson Whole Grain Chicken Nuggets and Tyson Whole Grain Chicken Patties have been added to the list of affordable commodities that are processed. These nuggets and patties are a great way to start incorporating whole grains into the school menu.
Next year commodity processed Horizon Turnovers will be made of 51% whole grain crust. These turnovers will continue to be the same high quality product you have come to expect from Horizon, but they will be a healthier option to use in your school menus. These turnovers will be another way to help incorporate whole grains into a balanced menu plan without sacrificing quality or taste. Child and Adult Nutrition Services looks forward to offering more high quality products on the commodity processing program next year.
Healthy Cuisine for Kids Seminars to be Offered by NFSMI
The National Food Service Management Institute (NFSMI) is offering Healthy Cuisine for Kids Seminars in March, April, and May. The three day seminars teach food service professionals culinary skills to prepare healthy meals for children.
Other upcoming seminars from NFSMI include A two day Nutrition Update seminar, a two day entry level Tools for Menu Management, and a five day Orientation to Child Nutrition Management seminar for aspiring child nutrition program directors.
All seminars are at the NFSMI campus in Mississippi except for two sessions of the Healthy Cuisine for Kids Seminars, which will be offered in New York and California. Registration information is available at: http://www.nfsmi.org/Education/Workshops.html
Resource Corner: Nutrition Facts Labels
FDA has put together a new training tool to teach people about nutrition fact labels. It is available at: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/label.html.
Kids
on the MoveKids on the Move –
Shapes
From Physical Activities and Healthy Snacks for Young Children; Team Nutrition Iowa;
Items needed: Three cards with shapes
| Card 1 – Sharp |  |
| Card 2 – Smooth |  |
|
Card 3 – Pause |
 |
Arrange the children in scatter formation.
Explain the three words. Sharp movements are hard, with angles and force. Smooth movements are soft, flowing, and gentle. Pause is a stop, holding the position, especially something fun. The activity is to make a movement (sharp or smooth) or pause, until you change the card. When you change the card the children do that activity until you change again.
Stop and point out things you like. Find something good from each child.
Bran Muffins with Fruit
From California Project Lean website. Recipe courtesy of California Five a Day, as published in Physical Activities and Healthy Snacks for Young Children; Team Nutrition Iowa;
Nonstick cooking spray
1-14 ounce box oat bran muffin mix
¾ cup orange juice or apple juice
1 cup finely chopped fruit (apricots, mangoes, plums, apples, or pears)
¾ cup golden raisins or chopped dry fruit
12 muffins
1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly coat 12 muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray.
2) Combine muffin mix, juice, chopped fruit, and dried fruit in a medium bowl. Mixture should be moist.
3) Spoon 1/3 cup batter into each muffin cup.
4) Bake 14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of muffin comes out clean.
5) Remove muffins from pan and cool on wire rack.
Snack Idea (1-5 year olds):
1 Bran Muffin with Fruit and ½ cup frozen gapes (see December 2006 Nutrition Bulletin)
Food for Thought: Food Quote for January
Source: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension in Lancaster County at http://lancaster.unl.edu
After serious &
cautious consideration.....your contract of friendship has been
renewed for the New Year 2007 !
It was a very hard decision to make. So try not to mess it up!!! My
Wish for You in 2007
May peace break into your house and may thieves come to steal your
debts.
May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet for $100 bills. May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips!
May your clothes smell of success like smoking tires, may happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy.
May the problems you had forget your home address!
In simple words
............
May 2007 be the best year of your life!!!