TDA has posted Spanish versions of the School Nutrition Program household applications, household letters, and media release prototypes so that districts can immediately begin reaching out to their Spanish-speaking families. These versions include the updated Nondiscrimination Statement (NDS).
July 1, 2022 - Per the recently passed Keep Kids Fed Act (KKFA), TDA can now use its approved statewide waivers to allow all SFSP and SSO sites to resume non-congregate service, no child/parent pickup, and offsite monitoring flexibilities without those waivers being related to a specific COVID-19 event. Other flexibilities will be available soon as well.
Updated July 1, 2022; Originally Posted June 17, 2022 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service has provided information for Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) operators concerned about access to formula and their options for safely feeding infants in their care. These questions and answers support CACFP operators and the families they serve during the ongoing infant formula shortage due to supply chain issues, which worsened due to a major formula recall in February.
July 1, 2022 - The Keep Kids Fed Act passed on June 27, 2022, will allow higher reimbursements for meals and waive area eligibility requirements for Tier II Day Care Home Providers.
July 1, 2022 - Team Nutrition is excited to announce that training videos on navigating the Food Buying Guide (FBG) Mobile App are now available. These short videos are broken into four chapters to provide users with step-by-step instructions on using the Mobile App and its different components.
July 1, 2022 - The Keep Kids Fed Act passed on June 27, 2022, will allow higher reimbursements for meals, meal pattern flexibilities in the event of COVID-19-related supply chain issues, and other flexibilities still to be determined in School Year 2022-2023.
July 1, 2022 - This Fall, ‘Back to School’ will also mean ‘Back to Student Meal Rates’ for nutritious school meals. TDA has created resources to assist with notifying parents about this shift.
July 1, 2022 - The program year for CACFP is set to default to PY23. Please take note of the program year in which you are updating the application packet to ensure that the correct program year is being updated. When initially enrolling the PY23 application, all data from the last approved forms in PY22 will roll to the PY23 application. Any subsequent updates made to PY22 once the PY23 application packet has been enrolled will need to be manually copied and entered into the PY23 application. Amendments made to site applications in PY22 will reflect in PY23. Therefore, please ensure that only one program year application is submitted at a time to avert any confusion as to which program year the sites should be processed.
July 1, 2022 - The ordering functions in the TX-UNPS FDP module for NSLP and SFSP will transition to USDA's Web-Based Supply Chain Management (WBSCM) system.
July 1, 2022 - As schools return to normal operations, CEs that operated SSO during SY 2020-2021 may not have the complete data needed to determine eligibility for severe need breakfast and lunch reimbursements in SY 2022-2023. These CEs may use the most beneficial claims data going back to SY 2019-2020 to qualify for severe need, as outlined in this article.
July 1, 2022 - USDA announced new PLE flexibilities for SY 2022-2023. Any NSLP CE with a positive or zero balance in its nonprofit school food service account as of December 31, 2021, is exempt from PLE pricing requirements for SY 2022-2023. Additionally, USDA is exempting CEs with a negative nonprofit food service account balance as of December 31, 2021, from raising meal prices in accordance with PLE requirements. CEs with a negative balance planning to use this flexibility must notify TDA via request form available on the Intake Forms page of SquareMeals.org.
July 1, 2022 - Schools that operated the Seamless Summer Option in School Year 2021-2022 will be permitted to use a prior year's data for 30-day carryover, depending on how or if they processed household applications in SY 2021-2022 or SY 2020-2021. CEs planning to use this flexibility must notify TDA by October 15, 2022, via request form available on the Intake Forms page of SquareMeals.org.
July 1, 2022 - TDA was given the discretion to allow NSLP/SBP CEs to complete their first triennial Local Wellness Policy assessment by June 30, 2023. CEs planning to use the new deadline must inform TDA by July 15, 2022, via request form available on the Intake Forms page of SquareMeals.org.