September 29, 2022 - Several revised Administrator's Reference Manual (ARM) sections for the National School Lunch Program have been posted and released.
TDA is requesting a statewide waiver from USDA to implement a five-year review cycle for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. By extending the review cycle to five years, TDA staff will be able to direct additional resources to provide technical assistance, reduce the time needed to conduct the total number of reviews, and allocate additional resources to identify and support the needs of high-risk SFAs.
September 1, 2022 - Verification begins October 3rd. All CEs must submit the Verification Report, including CEP and P2 CEs.
August 18, 2022 - The program year for NSLP is now 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.
August 1, 2022 - On Wednesday, August 17, USDA’s Team Nutrition initiative will present a Meal Talk webinar on Local School Wellness Policies. This webinar will be held from 2 to 3 pm Central Time.
August 1, 2022 - WBSCM training begins October 2022 for Recipient Agencies (aka CEs) in the pilot group. To prepare, TDA is collecting account access information and hosting a series of short WBSCM demos in August and September.
August 1, 2022 - This handy reference for Program operators across all Child Nutrition Programs (CNPs) is a simple and easy-to-use resource that highlights the basics of crediting for the meats/meat alternates component.
August 1, 2022 - The Keep Kids Fed Act passed on June 27, 2022, will allow higher reimbursements for meals, meal service flexibilities, and meal pattern flexibilities in the event of COVID-19-related supply chain issues.
August 1, 2022 - Spanish versions of School Nutrition Program (SNP)-related forms have been revised with the updated Nondiscrimination Statement (NDS) as implemented by USDA.
August 1, 2022 - As schools return to normal operations, CEs that operated SSO during school year (SY) 2020-2021 may not have the 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.
August 1, 2022 - USDA’s Team Nutrition is excited to announce the release of new Fueling My Healthy Life nutrition education for 7th and 8th grade students. This standards-aligned and inquiry-based collection of educational resources is designed to engage middle school students using a variety of learning styles.
August 1, 2022 - Three Team Nutrition brochures have been updated and are now available online, including the Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs (FBG) brochure, the Professional Standards for School Nutrition Professionals brochure, and the Professional Standards Training Tracker Tool (PSTTT) brochure.
August 1, 2022 - Update Guide sections located at the beginning of each ARM section provide more information about the topics addressed in each release.
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 - 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 - 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 - 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 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.
Updated June 8, 2022 - USDA has recently released guidance regarding the AJFA posters. Currently, USDA is working with TDA and will provide newly printed AJFA posters later this year. TDA is working on a statewide distribution plan and will communicate to all CEs when posters are available and being sent to your CE locations to be distributed to your sites.
June 1, 2022 - The Nondiscrimination Statement required on all public-facing Program materials has recently been updated to account for a recent court decision determining that the prohibition of discrimination based on sex in Title IX and the Food and Nutrition Act includes gender identity and sexual orientation.
January 12, 2022 - Returning Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) Contracting Entities (CEs) for SFSP program year 2022 may enter in the site applications no more than the amount listed on the Maximum Approvable ADP list. The Maximum ADP list provides the maximum approvable ADP for the site by meal type for SFSP 2022. Click the link in the title to find the list at the bottom of the next page. The list is used to determine the maximum ADP for each site.
July 28, 2021 - The School Nutrition Program (SNP) site applications must be submitted and approved as a prerequisite for SSO application processing. SSO sites submitted for approval will be returned for correction if there are no SNP site applications in submitted and/or approved status.