Articles in the March 2007 Issue

A Note From Sandra:

May the blessing of light be upon you,
Light without and light within…
And in all your comings and goings,
May you ever have a kindly greeting
From them you meet along the way.

            ~ From an Ole Gaelic Prayer – Irish Blessings  

While we wish that for each of you, remember that each of us can be the light and friendly greeting for others – our family, coworkers, community, parents, and, most of all, for the children we provide physical nourishment for each day.

School Breakfast Week and the Child and Adult Care Food Program Week both occur in March. Food service employees in all facets of child nutrition have the best interest of the children at heart. Hope you were able to do some fun things with the week.

We know that our plans in March need to be flexible due to the changeable weather. While you have plans for notifying employees about whether or not the school or agency will be open, what plans do you have regarding handling food? What if you have started food preparation and school is called off or the center is closed before meal service? While it is easy to put the breakfast cereal back on the shelf, what do you do with cooked items or partially cooked items? Do you and the staff members know how to properly handle them for re-use or when they should be destroyed?

Thinking of plans – summer will be here before we know it. Are you considering feeding the children in your community during the summer months? If you are interested but not sure if you are eligible or when the workshops are, please contact Cassandra Pope of the CANS office.

Another issue every summer is that  freezers or refrigerators quit working. Start now to make plans for who will check on them. record the temperatures, know when the temperature is not right (don’t just write it down), and know who to contact if there is a problem.

Back to Top

Building for the Future with the CACFP

Upcoming Training Events -

“CACFP Plus!” Workshops

  • April 5, 2007 – Aberdeen Catholic Schools – Aberdeen

  • April 17, 2007 – Augustana College –Sioux Falls

  • April 24, 2007 – Capitol Lake Visitor’s Center – Pierre

  • May 2, 2007 – Lake Area Technical Institute – Watertown

  • May 9, 2007 – Youth & Family Services – Rapid City

These workshops are designed for veteran staff that have a solid understanding of Program requirements. Pre-registration is required. There is no charge to attend. For more information please contact Melissa Halling at (605) 773-3566 or by email at melissa.halling@state.sd.us.

CACFP Basics –

Five-day Reconciliations 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 topic this month is five-day reconciliations.

The Interim Rule, implementing legislative reforms to strengthen Program integrity published in the Federal Register on September 1, 2004, requires that all monitoring visits include an examination of the meal counts recorded by the facility for five consecutive days of operation during the current and/or prior claiming period. For each day examined, monitors must use enrollment records to determine the number of children in care during each meal service and attempt to reconcile those numbers to the numbers of breakfasts, lunches, suppers, and/or snacks recorded in the facility's meal count for that day. Based on that comparison, the monitor must determine whether the meal counts were accurate. Attendance records may be used in addition to enrollment records if the meal counts do not match enrollment data. If there is a discrepancy between the number of children enrolled or in attendance on the day of review and prior meal counting patterns, the monitor must attempt to reconcile the difference and determine whether the establishment of an overclaim is necessary.

Back to Top

Child Nutrition Employee Appreciation Week

May 7-11, 2007 is Child Nutrition Employee Appreciation week. The School Nutrition Association has designated this one week each year to honor child nutrition employees. Be sure to set aside some time to celebrate just how special these employees are and let them know you’re thinking of them.

Certificates of appreciation are available from Child and Adult Nutrition Services for long-term employees to be honored or those that are retiring. Certificates can be requested at 10 years and at 5-year intervals after that (15 years, 20 years, etc.) Certificates for retirees can be requested at any time. You can request a certificate of appreciation for the employee by providing the name, years of service, and school/agency where they are employed. You can include years of food service at other schools or agencies, also.  Be sure to note who the request should be sent back to and if you need it by a certain date such as for a retirement party.

Written requests should be submitted so we are sure the spelling is correct. Submit the request to CANS by April 15. Send the request to the attention of Shar by email to shar.venjohn@state.sd.us or fax 605-773-6846 or use our mailing address of 800 Governors Drive, Pierre SD 57501-2235.

Back to Top

Summer Food Service Training

With spring here, the season has started the kick-off of the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).  Three training sessions will be held in March on the following dates and locations.

  • March 21 - 1:00-1:45 PM CST over the Dakota Digital Network (DDN)

    • This session is for SFSP Seamless Summer Option or “waiver” participants only.

  • March 21 - 2:00-4:00 PM CST over the Dakota Digital Network (DDN)

    • This session is for those experienced sponsors from 2006.

DDN sites where the training will be held include:

  • Watertown, Lake Area Technical Institute

  • Pierre, Capital Studio A

  • Rapid City SDSM&T / CB 109

  • Mitchell, Mitchell Technical Institute / TC 155

  • Sioux Falls, USDSU 185

March 22 - 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM CST; State Library Conference Room in Pierre.  This session will be for new sponsors that have not participated in the program or have new staff responsible for the operation of the SFSP.

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 Pope at (605) 773-3110 or e-mail at cassandra.pope@state.sd.us.

Back to Top

Professional Development

DDN Sessions Continue through April

There are two DDN sessions left in the 4 part series on Child Nutrition topics.  In March, there will be a session on Wellness Policies and in April a session on preparing for changes in school lunch requirements as USDA aligns school lunch with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines.  For information about times and locations, please visit the following website  http://www.doe.sd.gov/oess/cans/nutrition/trainingandassistance.asp

Back to Top

Resource Corner

National Nutrition Month Theme

March is National Nutrition Month and the theme this year is 100% Fad Free®.  Instead of dieting or following the latest food craze, the healthiest path to follow is the MyPyramid and the Dietary Guidelines and recommendations by American Dietetic Association.  If everyone did this, we wouldn’t have so many zany fad diets out there and so many people who lose a few pounds only to gain them right back.  The American Dietetic Association has a lot of materials on their website that can be used to teach others about eating healthy and being Fad Free including lesson plans and health fair ideas, games and a Fad Free quiz. 

http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/nutrition_4920_ENU_HTML.htm

The Eat Smart. Play Hard campaign from the USDA has new materials on its website that can be used to teach parents and caregivers and school staff about the importance of nutrition and physical activity and how they can be good role models for children and teens.  For more information please visit the Eat Smart. Play Hard website at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/eatsmartplayhard/collection/collect_tools_3.html

Also at this site are lessons for children from ages 3-12, public service announcements that can be broadcast from the school PA system and parent brochures that can be ordered for free.  If you are looking for ideas of how to use the many Eat Smart. Play Hard resources, visit the following website of the Eat Smart. Play Hard website at http://www.fns.usda.gov/eatsmartplayhard/collection/main.html and scroll down to where it says Bright Ideas.

Back to Top

Food Safety Program Questions & Answers

A number of questions have come in over the last month as schools are continuing to implement their food safety programs.

1.      QUESTION: Do I have to log Hand washing?

ANSWER: NO! Employees should monitor each other’s Hand washing. If you notice that a fellow employee has not washed their hands when they should have—say something!

2.      QUESTION: I want to record food temperatures on my production records.  Where is the best place to record them?

ANSWER: There are a couple places that temperatures can be recorded on the production record that should not interfere with any other information you need to record.  It would be appropriate to record the temperature just to the left of the menu box next to each menu item listed. Another place would be in the first column titled “Menu Component”.  Do not list temperatures in a column that is reserved for recording other information.  For instance, even if you never serve seconds do not record temperatures in the seconds column unless you get prior approval from CANS.  Temperatures could also be recorded on the back side of the production record. 

3.      QUESTION: I have tried numerous methods of marking my thermometers, but none of them work. What should I do?

ANSWER: As long as you calibrate all your thermometers at the same time every week then you won’t need to mark your thermometers. Your Using and Calibrating Thermometers SOP should reflect that a specific number of thermometers (list the actual number of thermometers in your kitchen that you calibrate) will be calibrated at a specific time during the week. If you purchase additional thermometers, you will need to change that on your SOP.

Back to Top

New website for children

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has created an interactive website for children, called Smallstep KIDS!  The mission of the website is to educate children on healthy eating and developing healthy lifestyle habits.  Through informative pictographs, quizzes and tip sheets, Smallstep KIDS! puts a wealth of hearty, healthy information at the fingertips of internet savvy youth.  The website also includes various games and puzzles for interactive learning entertainment.

To visit the website, go to:  www.smallstep.gov/kids/flash/index.html.  HHS has also developed a website for health conscious teens and adults.  For more information, go to:  www.smallstep.gov/index.html.

Back to Top

MyPyramid Corner:  Seconds, portion sizes and a la Carte

School lunch helps students get needed vitamins, minerals, protein and the calories needed for the noon meal.  But what happens if the school offers free second servings of entrée items, sells extra items to students or serves larger portion sizes than recommended for the age group?  It means that students are getting more than 1/3 of their daily allotment of calories at lunchtime and in most cases it means the student ate more calories that day than they needed.  If students eat more calories than they need, their body turns the extra calories into fat as a means of saving that energy for later.  Over 2/3 of our adult population is overweight or obese which means that they have packed away extra calories.  Sooner or later the extra weight usually leads to health problems including an increased risk for diabetes and heart disease.  Over 1/3 of school age students are at risk of overweight or overweight which means that about 1/3 or more of the students at the school where you serve school lunch are carrying extra pounds.  Some of them may outgrow the extra fat and some may not and if the trend continues 2/3 of the students at your school will be overweight or obese adults.  

Many students and parents are not aware of how out of control restaurant and convenience store portion sizes have become and that one fast food meal or item at a sit down restaurant might contain all the calories they need for the entire day.  A recent article highlighted a restaurant at which customers are encouraged to order steaks that are at least one pound in weight and often people purchase 1.5 pound steaks or even larger ones.  Sometimes convenience stores and restaurants carry desserts almost as big as our head.  Beverages full of sugar can be purchased in glasses that hold almost a gallon.  As people get used to eating huge quantities of food and beverages, they think that normal portions look way, way too small and don’t understand why they have gained weight and how little they actually need to eat to be at a healthy weight.   Once the weight is gained it can be difficult to go back to eating small portion sizes and choosing foods without added fat and sugar.

So what can you do at school to help your students get off to a good start and not eat more calories than needed?  Don’t offer free seconds of entrees and don’t sell entrees and desserts in addition to the reimbursable meal.  If students are still hungry (and some will be because many have gotten used to eating too much food), offer extra servings of vegetables or fruits without added fat or sugar.  This helps students in a couple of ways.  Some students may not actually be hungry, but just really like whatever it is that you are serving and it is a compliment that they want more of it---however, most of them do not need any more calories.  For those students who are still hungry, veggies and fruit are a great way to fill up.  Also, eating more fruits and vegetables helps students reach the recommended amount per day as suggested by the MyPyramid.   

For the occasional student that needs more calories such as an athlete that burns off a lot of calories—your school may want to consider how those students can get more calories without it being through the cafeteria foods that are offered to all students.  Possible options might be for them to bring extra food from home, to eat extra calories outside of school time and to eat extra foods off of the salad bar such as baked potatoes with veggies and shredded low fat cheese.  

Also, be sure to make sure that you are serving the correct portion size of each item for the reimbursable meal.  Accidentally giving larger portions will increase the amount of calories the student receives and put them over the number of calories they need which puts them at risk for gaining weight.  

And thanks for all you do to make school lunch a very healthy option—school lunch is often misunderstood by those who aren’t familiar with it and not everyone understands how hard many food service staff are working to serve healthy foods in just the right amount for the kids and why kids can’t eat as much of whatever they want.  For more information about what the Dietary Guidelines suggest that children and teens should be eating please visit the MyPyramid website at: www.mypyramid.gov.

Back to Top

Online registration is now available for Child Nutrition Certification Institute

Jump into Good Nutrition
June 2007
Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD

Registration is now open for Certification Institute.  Information including prices, class descriptions, days, times and optional activities is available at http://www.doe.sd.gov/oess/cans/training/certinstitute/index.asp. 

New this year is online registration which is available at the above link.  If you are unable to register online, a paper registration form is also available. 

Back to Top

3-A-Day of Dairy Nutrition Education 2007 Grant Program Fact Sheet
 

What

 

America’s low calcium intake is recognized as a major public health problem.  To address this concern, the Midwest Dairy Council will award nine $5,000 grants to organizations or individuals proposing innovative, community-based nutrition education programs aimed at empowering kids to become advocates for healthy eating, including three servings of dairy a day.

 

Who

 

 

Grants are open to all groups or individuals in the U.S., including those self-employed, commissioned by or employed by organizations of local government, state and local health departments, regional and state agencies and schools, medical facilities and extension specialists. Grants are also open to past 3-A-Day of Dairy grant winners.

 

Nutrition Education

 

The 3-A-Day of Dairy nutrition education program is designed to improve overall diet, by including three servings a day of milk, cheese or yogurt to help children adopt a healthy lifestyle.

 

Grant Program Guidelines

 

All program proposals/applications must:

  • include specific educational/behavioral objectives targeting children (ages 9-18, or a subgroup within this range) with measurable results that have the potential to be replicated. Consideration will also be given to the methods used (validated, v. non-validated) and the ability to leverage and communicate the results to a wider audience. 

  • be original/creative in design and program implementation.

  • be implemented within the school environment (i.e., public school, private school, after-school program, etc.) during the 2007-2008 school year.

  • empower kids to be advocates for healthy eating, including three servings of dairy a day.

  • aim at improving knowledge of 3-A-Day of Dairy nutrition through design and implementation of one or more educational activities.

  •  focus on increasing dairy product consumption (milk, cheese or yogurt) to at least three servings per day with emphasis on lowfat and fat free products to be consistent with the USDA food guidance system, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and the 3-A-Day of Dairy nutrition education program.

How to Apply

To access submission guidelines and to download a sample application, please visit www.midwestdairy.com or www.nationaldairycouncil.org. If you don’t have Internet access, please contact 1-800-642-3895.

Note: Applications must be postmarked by April 6, 2007.

Back to Top

2007 Breakfast Awards

Midwest Dairy Council is pleased to announce its 2007 Breakfast Awards!  Up to $10,000 will be awarded to participants that are bringing breakfast to their students in creative ways and with great results.

The benefits children receive from eating a nutritious breakfast are numerous and well documented.  Eating breakfast yields better student test scores, increases concentration and attendance, decreases disciplinary problems and more. 

Many schools recognize this opportunity and offer breakfast in the cafeteria.  But there’s an even better way to bring breakfast to children – using alternate breakfast service options.  Offering breakfast in the classroom or outside of the cafeteria increases participation by providing service for children who arrive late or who prefer to socialize rather than eat, and by helping to remove the potential social stigma that the program is meant for low-income students.

Schools that offer a breakfast service or expanded breakfast options are encouraged to enter to win a Breakfast Award by going to www.midwestdairy.com. The application deadline is November 30, 2007.  Awards will be announced January 7, 2008. 

Back to Top

Kids in the Kitchen

Crustless Spinach Pie

From Tickle Your Appetite as published in Physical Activities and Healthy Snacks for Young Children; Team Nutrition Iowa;

  • ¼ cup butter or margarine

  • 3 eggs

  • 1 cup flour

  • 1 cup low-fat milk

  • 1/8 tsp. garlic powder or ¼ tsp. fresh minced garlic

  • 1 tsp. baking powder

  • 12 oz. shredded cheese (cheddar or mozzarella)

  • 4 cups fresh, washed, and chopped spinach

1.   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.   Melt butter or margarine in a 9”x13” pan.
3.   Beat eggs well. Add flour, milk, garlic powder, and baking powder.
4.   Stir in cheese and spinach and pour mixture into the pan.
5.   Bake for 35 minutes or until lightly browned.

6 servings

Snack Idea: (1-5 year olds)

  • ¾” rectangle (1/6 of the pan) provides a vegetable and meat snack serving.

Back to Top

Kids on the Move

Moving to Music

Need: Music the children like

Arrange the children in scatter formation.

Describe sharp movements as a way to move the body to make lines, corners, and angles. Demonstrate by making your arms straight then angled by rapidly and forcefully bending your elbows. Ask the children to move their arms in sharp movements. Ask the children to move other body parts with sharp movements (ankles, waist, hands, etc.).

Describe smooth movements as the way to move that has circles, turns, and doesn’t stop. Demonstrate by swinging your arms in circles. Ask the children to move their arms in smooth movements. Ask the children to move their whole body in smooth movements as you demonstrate turning, bending, swaying – all smoothly.

Turn on the music and ask the children to move to the music. Remind the children to move using smooth or sharp movements.

Back to Top

Food for Thought

Source:  University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension in Lancaster County at http://lancaster.unl.edu

Back to Top