Tom Horne Superintendent of Public Instruction Providing the latest dish on School Health and Nutrition News and Information Volume 3, November 2005 “Scoops” is published quarterly by the Arizona Department of Education, School Health and Nutrition Team 2005 North Central Ave Phoenix, Arizona (602) 542-8700 ade.az.gov/health-safety/ cnp/ Mary Szafranski Deputy Associate Superintendent Holly Mueller MPH RD SFNS Program Director School Health & Nutrition Patricia Johnson RD SFNS Scoops Editor Professional Development Coordinator Katrina Klatt RD SFNS CRE Coordinator Kacey Frey RD SFNS SMI Coordinator Traci Grgich RD FSMC/ School Breakfast Coordinator Lynn Ladd RD SFNS STEPS Grant Coordinator Nicholas Dunford NSLP Training Coordinator Special Milk Program Crystal Kalahar Welcome Assistance Coordinator Afterschool Snack Program Mat McCarty RD Team Nutrition Grant Coordinator Cara Peczkowski RD HACCP/Food Safety Coordinator Nicole Anderson RD Provision 2 & 3 Coordinator Erin Yde, RD Well Street Journal Editor Fruit & Vegetable Program Breann Westmore Health Standards & Physical Activity Coordinator Jackie Wilson Administrative Assistant 2004 TEAM NUTRITION GRANT SCHOOLS MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES In 2004 the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) was awarded a second Team Nutrition grant to build school and community support for creating healthy school environments that are conducive to healthy eating and physical activity through implementing the Arizona Healthy School Environment Model Policy. The 2004 Team Nutrition Grant is similar to the 2003 Team Nutrition Grant where eight schools piloted the model policy. During this round of mini grants secondary schools were specifically targeted to further study the impact of changing the nutrition and physical activity environment at the junior high and senior high school level where the majority of competitive food sales occur. The five schools awarded Team Nutrition mini grants earlier this year were Cesar Chavez High School, Flagstaff High School, Mile High Middle School, Sierra Middle School, and Thunder Mountain Middle School. However, after several months of preparation Flagstaff High School elected to withdraw from the grant. The remaining four schools are currently implementing the model policy during this school years’ fall semester. The schools have provided ADE with pre-implementation financial and nutritional data which will then be compared to the post implementation data. The schools have worked hard to improve the food selection available to their students in a la carte lines, school stores, and vending machines. Gone are the high calorie, high fat, and low nutrient foods replaced with lower calorie, lower fat, and more nutritious items. Thunder Mountain Middle School has found success by replacing high fat pizza options with lower fat Subway sandwiches. Cesar Chavez High School has eliminated their 600 plus calorie and 27 grams of fat personal pizza from their a la carte line, which resulted in an increase in their National School Lunch Program participation. They are also piloting a universal free breakfast program in the cafeteria. Sierra Middle School now offers all students a free salad bar with fresh fruits and vegetables. Also, students were given an assignment to catch their families and friends being physically active or eating healthy foods and to take pictures of them. Mile High Middle School has eliminated soda machines and now offers fruit and yogurt, and vegetables trays at their snack bar. The grant schools are also planning and implementing physical activity programs. Sierra Middle School purchased a new health/nutrition curriculum and has secured funds to purchase physical activity equipment. Cesar Chavez High is starting a handball tournament and has open gym activities for staff and students. Thunder Mountain is planning physical fitness activities leading up to the “Lost Dutchman Day Marathon Days” in January. To learn more about the Team Nutrition Grant projects please visit http:// www.ade.az.gov/health-safety/cnp/teamnutrition/. Circulate to: ❑ Principal ❑ School Nurse ❑ Business Manager ❑ Health Teacher ❑ Kitchen staff ❑ Secretary/Bookkeeper Celebrate National Breakfast Week March 6-10, 2006 The smell of syrup, the sight of cereal boxes stacked in rows and the sound of students chatting as they gear up for a busy school day is a familiar setting in many school cafeterias. Serving school breakfast each day offers students an opportunity to fuel up their minds and bodies to learn and play to their fullest potential. To celebrate this early morning meal, the School Nutrition Association (SNA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) dedicate a week in March to highlight the school breakfast program. To some, a breakfast program may seem daunting. It’s one more meal to plan, prepare, clean up and promote to students. However, there are some many creative ways to get to the same endpoint of the breakfast program, which is a full stomach and a mind ready to learn. For instance, breakfast can be served in other places than just the school cafeteria. There are programs like Breakfast in the Classroom, Grab ‘n’ Go Breakfast, and breakfast after first period or on the bus. There can be many opportunities for a breakfast program in your school that don’t take much time or effort to make a success. SNA will be releasing promotional materials, ideas and activities for schools to use during the week and beyond to support their breakfast program. The materials will be posted on the SNA website www.schoolnutrition.org How Does Your School Foodservice Operation Stack Up? You work hard every year improving customer service, food safety, and menu quality in a constant attempt to fine tune your foodservice operation. This is a difficult task taking into consideration federal regulations, increasing participation, and offering foods students will eat. Appealing to children today is more challenging than ever with the culture of retail marketing. What factors affect student satisfaction the most? To help you surf through the mental psyche of your students, the National Food Service Management Institute (NFSMI) conducted a study to determine what students prefer/dislike about meals served at your school. In all, 537 third through fifth grade students from 9 different states participated in the study to help identify which school foodservice characteristics affect satisfaction. After the data was statistically analyzed, results show there are two main predictors of satisfaction. They include students liking the menu and when choices are offered. Therefore, schools participating in Offer vs. Serve probably have higher rates of satisfaction than those schools that do not. So what makes a student “like” a menu? The study suggests when students have input to the changes on a menu, they have more buy-in and excitement over the changes, thereby creating approval of the menu. Overall, good customer service provided the most satisfaction to these students. The study also demonstrated students have similar desires from the school foodservice as adults want from restaurants. Since children are increasingly eating meals outside of the home, the result is a rise in the expectation that school meals should taste and look like fast food/restaurant meals. While budget constraints and nutritional considerations may not warrant providing fast food in your cafeteria every day, looking into offering healthy products similar to popular commercial food items may be a possible option. Increasing participation in your program and identifying student satisfaction of menu items are complimentary components to success. So the next time you are looking to increase participation or satisfaction, look to studies like this for great data to steer resources in the right direction or create a student satisfaction survey of your own! It’s never too late. Journal of Child Nutrition and Management (a publication of School Nutrition Association), vol. 29, issue 1, Spring 2005 GET SNACK’N! It is easy to provide snacks to students after the school day ends; it is called the After School Care Snack Program (ASCS). If you are a sponsor operating the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), you can be reimbursed for snacks served to students that attend a regularly scheduled supervised enrichment activity such as: mentoring, tutoring, or learning games. The ASCS program provides students with nutritious snacks in a safe and fun environment that helps them to learn and grow while offering another educational opportunity. Remember, kids that have full bellies tend to learn and behave better! Reimbursement is based on your schools free and reduced-price participation percentage. Schools are eligible if they are 50% or higher free and reduced or the school is in an area that is. Your school will be reimbursed at the free rate if it is eligible. If your school does not qualify based on eligibility, you will be reimbursed for the snacks by the category that the children are certified (i.e. free, reduce, or paid). This does not involve any extra work as schools already have students’ eligibility information on file for the NSLP. How schools record snacks served is based on the school’s eligibility. If your school is eligible, all that is required to document snacks is a sign in sheet. If your school is not eligible, you will need to use a Benefit Issuance Document (BID), commonly called a roster, with the students’ eligibility coded. Claiming snacks every month is easy, as it is included in the school’s online CNP Web Claim for reimbursement. Participating schools include the number of snacks claimed in the section for After School Snack on the same online form that the School Breakfast Program (SBP) and NSLP meals are entered. For a snack to be considered reimbursable, it must contain at least two of the following four components: a serving of fluid milk, a serving of meat or meat alternate, a serving of vegetable(s) or fruit(s) or 100% vegetable or fruit juice, a serving of whole grain or enriched bread or cereal. Also, Production Records must be maintained. It is really easy to get started! To participate in ASCS program, revise section 10 of your school’s site application on CNP Web. So do not waste any time, GET SNACK’N! If you have questions about the ASCS call (602) 542-8700 to speak with your assigned specialist or visit http://www.ade.az.gov/health-safety/cnp/nslp/ascp/. Food Distribution Update We are off to a great start for the new school year. I am excited to be a part of this program and am enjoying the opportunity to work with all of you. Here are a couple of program updates: Left to right- Sherri Ottersen, Osborn Elementary District, Albert John, Kayenta Unified District, Rick Littell, Humboldt Unified District, Germaine Wiley, Casa Grande Elementary District, David Caldwell, Washington Elementary School District, Superintendent Tom Horne NSLP and SFSP 2005 AWARD WINNERS The Arizona Department of Education is proud to announce the following sponsors for the 2004-2005 School Meal Initiative (SMI), Coordinated Review Effort (CRE), and Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) awards. Congratulations! SMI AWARD WINNER Washington Elementary District CRE AWARD WINNERS Casa Grande Elementary District Humboldt Unified District SFSP AWARD WINNNERS Kayenta Unified School District: Providence Social Services: Osborn School District: Outstanding Outreach Magnificent Menus Best All Around Spectacular Staff Perfectly Partnered Please visit www.ade.az.gov/health-safety/cnp/nslp/ to view the award winners and nominees from the past two years. Nutrikids Software Winner!!! The Arizona Department of Education was pleased to present the grand prize of 2 free Nutrikids trainings as well as Nutrikids Left to right: Lynn Ladd, ADE, Erin Yde, ADE, Kacey Frey, ADE, Donna software (a $900.00 value!) to Campbell, Alhambra Elementary District, Nicholas Dunford, ADE Donna Campbell from Alhambra School District. Donna attended and won this prize at “Verification Clarification,” an ADE sponsored session at the recent SNAAZ conference. Congratulations Donna!! Calendar of Events Topic Location Date Time A+ School Lunch Workshop Phoenix 1/4-5 8-5 A+ School Lunch Workshop Phoenix 2/1-2/2 8-5 A+ School Lunch Workshop Flagstaff 2/21-22 8-5 Provision 2 & 3 Training Phoenix 1/3 1-4:30 Contracting with a FSMC Phoenix 1/12 8:30-12 Contracting with a FSMC Phoenix 1/26 8:30-12 Serving it Safe Phoenix 1/18-19 9-3 Advanced Changing the Scene Phoenix 2/16 8-5 SUCCESS Phoenix 2/28 8:30-12:30 Barbara Lado has been promoted to Program Project Specialist. She is now available to assist you with your Group B surveys, commodity losses and commodity/ allocation/ delivery questions. We also have a new fax number (listed below) dedicated solely to Food Distribution. Here are the Food Distribution staff contact numbers: Tina Herzog, Program Director (602) 542-8781 Leona Benally, Processing Specialist (602) 364-1965 Barbara Lado PPS – Commodity Coordinator, Losses and Allocations (602) 542-8721 Ruchelle Bedonie Clerical support (602) 5428729 Fax # (602) 542-6978 We are beginning the process of gathering updated EndProduct Data Schedules from approved processors for next year’s catalog. We will be using the same processors that currently have contracts with us for the next school year as well. Our current contract does not allow us to bring on new processors at this time. We will re-evaluate the RFP next year to see if new processors can be added for the following school year 2007-2008. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact myself or any member of the Food Distribution team. Thank you! Tina Herzog Auditor General Conducting Special NSLP Verification Audit at Legislature’s Request The verification process of the National School Lunch program has come under scrutiny by the Arizona Legislature this year. State Senator James Weiers, issued a request to the Auditor General for a special NSLP Verification audit in August. From this special audit, two reports are due from the Auditor General to the Arizona Legislature. The first report, due December 15th, is required to provide an overview of current verification practices and trends in the state. The second report, due on February 28, 2006, is to include the results of 6 Arizona schools that were mandated to conduct 100% verification. The six schools selected by the Auditor General are: • Blue Ridge High School/ Blue Ridge USD • Camp Mohave Elementary/Mohave Valley ESD • Copper Ridge Elementary/Scottsdale USD • William C Jack Elementary/Glendale ESD • Desert Shadow Elementary/Paradise Valley USD • Townsend Middle School/Tucson USD FROM THE FINANCE OFFICE Welcome back to another new school year. As we begin the school year, we would like to cover some of the special issues you may encounter on your reimbursement claims at the beginning of the new year. Attendance Factors - If your claim is in error due to a low Attendance Factor, DO NOT adjust your meal counts and submit the claim. Contact the Health and Nutrition, Finance Office for assistance or complete the Attendance Factor calculation form available on the Health and Nutrition website. Approved Categories – During the first claim month, the number of children approved on the reimbursement claim are typically higher due to the income application processing. Children may switch between categories during the income application collection period therefore they should be counted in each category on the monthly reimbursement claim. Submitting Claims – As a reminder, be sure to click the Submit All Claims link in CNP Web to ensure payment of your claim. Claims left in Pending status are not considered submitted and will not be paid. We look forward working with everyone this year. As always, if you need assistance, feel free to contact us. Below are the names and phone numbers of the Finance staff to assist you in contacting the appropriate person: Sherri Schwindt – Claims Processing Mila Makal – Annual Financial Reports, State Match, Audits Brian Walsh – FSMC and Caterer Contracts, RFPs (602) 364-2358 (602) 542-8714 (602) 542-6208 Tools for Healthy Schools in 2006 Sponsored by ADE A one day conference for School Nutrition Directors, PE Teachers, Nurses, Health Teachers, Administrators or anyone interested in improving the health and nutritional environment in their schools. We have a group of dynamic speakers that will present all the tools you will need to create a healthy school environment. Come learn about the following topics: The New Dietary Guidelines for Americans, The Road to SMI Success, School Wellness Policies, School Health Index. Join us at this informative conference. Register on line at: www.ade.az.gov/onlineregistration ADE is closely following the process of this audit and will keep our sponsors posted on the findings once they become available. For more information, please visit our website at www.ade.az.gov Tucson Convention Center January 10, 2006 Phoenix- Mesa Convention Center January 11, 2006 Flagstaff- Little America January 12, 2006 Printed in Phoenix, AZ by the Arizona Department of Education. Copies: 600, Total Cost: $864.55, Unit Cost: $1.45, Date: 11/05