Tag Archives: Development and Nutrition Labeling Software

The Parker School District tracks lunch using wordware’s School Lunch Software

The Parker School District tracks lunch using wordware’s School Lunch Software

Parents remember you can check your family lunch account balance by going to the Parker home-page, www.parker.k12.sd.us, “For Parents” section, Wordware link. You can now also add money to your child’s lunch account from your computer! Click the “e-Funds for Schools” link within the “For Parents” section on the Parker School website for details!

School nutritional program to provide best Nutrient for the child – Wordware Inc.

Need to start thinking out of the box for your school lunch program? Some days it is hard to find where ‘out of the box’ is. Try viewing this You Tube video for starters, “School Lunch in Japan – It’s Not Just About Eating!” (youtube.com). It is a totally different experience to that of our USA approach to school lunch so it’s worth a trip out of the box!

The students eat in their classrooms with their teachers, for a 45 minute lunch period that same as a class. We first notice students bringing their personal items in their lunch bags, including a toothbrush, cup for brushing teeth, a napkin, chopsticks, and placemat. The school has a ‘farm’ for veggies and everything is made from scratch, five kitchen staff for 570 students. Everyone wears head and face masks around food from kitchen staff to the students. It appears that everyone has a mask, hat, and coat in their desks to don during the pre-eating activities.

Each class sends students to pick up the lunches for the day, which are individually dispersed in the classrooms. They even keep track of leftovers through a report from the students and they find out where all the food is from, local farms, sixth graders in the school farm, so forth. The recycling is amazing. All the milk cartons are broken down and flattened, then washed and set aside for drying. Everyone brushes their teeth at the end of the meal. Even the last 20 minutes before returning to class they sweep, scrub floors and do maintenance cleaning.

Out of the box thinking does not mean one system is better than other. These ideas can be the catalyst to solve a problem confronting us today. And it is just interesting to see how others handle lunch!

School nutritional program  to provide best Nutrient for the child

School nutritional programs to provide best nutritious meals to the child growth. Increasing participation ensures students never go without nutritious meals while wordware also guaranteeing your School nutritional programs success. Across the country we work with schools to help them achieve excellence with their school nutrition. We Power School Nutrition Departments. Our Nutrient Analysis component is easier than manual systems or other software programs. You’ll find it’s also:

  • Wordware LCS1000 is approved for nutrient analyses required in the school meal programs
  • Child Nutrition Database
  • Food-based analysis
  • Includes the nutrient standards from the Final Rule
  • Accessible from central office or school site
  • Ability to build and add local ingredients

 

 

 

Food and Nutrition Program Administration – School Nutrition Programs

Food and Nutrition Service helps local schools and districts work to decrease salt and fat, increase fiber and use low fat dairy products, whole grains, and fresh fruits and vegetables in students’ meals. Find more resources, guidelines and information about these programs on our website sections about Health and Wellness, School Nutrition Programs (especially Meal Patterns and Menu Planning) and the Food Distribution Program (see the whole grain pilot program information under Partners). The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity provided a number of recommendations on healthy food in schools. Read the report on the Let’s Move website.

Community Eligibility Provision
Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a new provision that makes it easier for high-need schools to serve free meals to all students.

In order to participate, local education authorities and/or schools must meet a minimum level of identified students for free meals, agree to serve free lunches and breakfasts to all students; and agree to cover with non-federal funds any costs of providing free meals to all students above amounts provided in federal assistance. To read more, choose the Community Eligibility Provision page at left.

Smart Snacks in School
The Smart Snacks in School nutrition standards support better health for our kids and echo the good work already taking place in schools across the country. The new standards preserve flexibility for time-honored traditions like fundraisers and bake sales, and provide ample transition time for schools. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is committed to working closely with students, parents, school stakeholders and the food and beverage industries to implement the new guidelines, and make the healthy choice the easy choice for America’s young people. View more information on Smart Snacks in School.

Farm to School is a nationwide collaborative effort to connect school districts with local farmers for the purpose of serving healthy school meals while utilizing local fresh foods. Farm to School aims to meet the diverse needs of school nutrition programs in an efficient manner, to support regional and local farmers and thereby strengthen local food systems and to provide support for health and nutrition education. View more information and resources on Farm to School.

The After School Care Program is one of the School Nutrition Programs the USDA is targeting for growth. If you provide an after school care program which meets regularly, is organized and supervised and has an educational or enrichment component, you may be eligible to claim reimbursement for snacks through this program. Contact us to apply for this program.

Read the nondiscrimination statement.

Program Regulations
Current program regulations, in the federal Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), are available on the U.S. Government Printing Office website:

National School Lunch Program (7 CFR 210)
School Breakfast Program (7 CFR 220)
Determining Eligibility for Free and Reduced-Price Meals and Free Milk in Schools (7 CFR 245)

State Statutes
State statutes related to School Nutrition Programs.
School Breakfast and Lunch: Minnesota Statutes, sections 124D.111 – 124D.1195
Minnesota Statutes, section 471.345: Uniform Municipal Contracting Law
Minnesota  Statutes, section 123B.52: Contracts 

SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM (SCHOOL FOOD AND NUTRITION PROGRAM)

An accounting system and the necessary forms for its maintenance are prescribed by the StateBoard of Accounts. If these forms are properly maintained for your program, you will have little difficulty obtaining the information needed to prepare monthly federal reimbursement claims, quarterly financial reports, etc. Effective internal controls of cash receipts and meals served are built into the system by using one of several methods. The methods are the use of properly maintained and approved class rosters, prenumbered meal tickets, and cash registers.
Computerized cash systems could be used after submission and review by the State Board of Accounts. All cash register systems must be equipped with identification keys to indicate (1) paid student meals, (2) reduced price student meals, (3) free student meals, (4) adult meals, (5) a la carte sales and other additional categories the school corporation may wish to identify that may be required by the accounting system. The register must have locked-in audit tapes and non-resettable totals for each category. If any type of cash register system is used, the cashier is accountable for the cash registered on that machine when it is totaled and checked out.
If meal tickets are used, the tickets are issued to each ticket seller in pre numbered blocks. Each ticket seller is charged with the value of the tickets issued and must either turn in money or unused tickets to discharge his liability. A receipt must be issued to each ticket seller for the money deposited with the charter school. If a daily ticket is used, it is collected at the serving line; however, if the ticket is for multiple days, it is punched at the serving line as that day’s meal is served.
All methods to account for the cafeteria operation require that the person responsible for collecting and reporting the money received for meals be different from the person responsible for counting and reporting the number of meals served. Under no circumstances shall all duties be vested in a single individual. School Food Form SF-2, Daily Record of Cash Received, categorizes cash receipts on a daily basis and must be totaled monthly. School Food Form SF-2A, Daily Record of Meals/Milk Served, records daily the number of meals/milk served and must be totaled monthly and will be a source of information for preparation of the monthly claim for federal reimbursement. School Food Form SF-3, Cash Disbursements and Fund Balance, is used to record on a daily basis the disbursements of the School Food Service Program and together with the SF-2 acts as the source information for the calculation of the fund balance as shown on the SF-3. The disbursement categories Service Area Direction and Food Preparation and Dispensing are defined as: Service Area Direction. Activities pertaining to directing and managing the food service program for the school corporation. Food Preparation and Dispensing. Activities concerned with preparing and serving the food and beverages associated with the food service program. This includes operating kitchen equipment, preparing food, cooking, serving food, cleaning and storing dishes and kitchen and lunch room equipment.
17-2Forms SF-1, SF-2, SF-2A, and SF-3 shall be maintained on a daily basis and totaled monthly.
These monthly totals are a source of information for preparation of the claim for federal reimbursement, the quarterly financial report, etc. SCHOOL FOOD VERIFICATIONS OF ELIGIBILITY
We understand situations exist which could be a concern regarding charter schools test-checking the validity of information provided on the applications for free and reduced-priced meals. The results of test checks, are to be reported to the Indiana Department of Education in accordance with 7CFR 245.6(a). Some tests note a very high incidence of errors or inaccurate applications.
An error for purposes of the test-check is an approved application, attempted to be verified that cannot be verified by the program participants with requested income verification information (i.e.,paycheck stub, W-2, etc.). Program participants who have an application that cannot be verified are not always dropped from the free and reduced-price meal program and corrections in reporting and additional testing does not always occur. The State Board of Accounts is of the audit position charter schools shall request a written position from the Indiana Department of Education stating whether the corrective action taken was sufficient or if additional verifications need to be performed when high incidences of errors in test sample verifications are noted. The written communication to the Department of Education must also request a determination if any increases or decreases in funding will result to the charter school because of the concerns noted with the verification process.
SCHOOL FOOD SYSTEMS – PREPAID FOOD

Subsidiary records by student must be routinely reconciled to the cash balance and at month end.

The School Food Prescribed Forms and any approved computerized Forms will be required to be maintained in the following manner to accurately account for prepaid items. A column titled “Prepaid Food” is added to the Daily Record of Cash Received, Form SF-2, for recording prepaid amounts received which have not been identified as to revenue type, i.e., lunch, breakfast, etc. Amounts will be entered both in “Prepaid Food” and “Total Cash Received” for each day because cash has been received. Another column “Prepaid Food Applied” is also added to Form SF-2, which will show periodic (and monthly) activity whenever prepaid meals are identified (charged to breakfast, lunch, etc.). Amounts in “Prepaid Food Applied” must at all times equal for each day, the amounts charged to various categories, i.e., student lunch, adult breakfast, etc. that were not paid for in cash. Amounts will not be added to “Total Cash Received” because cash has been previously entered and recognized in “Prepaid Food”. You are merely transferring “Prepaid Food” to the applicable categories.
The final column added to SF-2 is “Prepaid Food Trust”, which is the running balance column which shows the difference between “Prepaid Food” and “Prepaid Food Applied”. The amounts in “Prepaid Food Trust” are deducted from the “Balance” column in SF-3 Form, School Food Service Cash Disbursements which then should equal the amount in the new SF-3 Column “Available Cash Balance.”
Amounts are not entered in “Total Cash Received” because “Prepaid Food Trust” is merely a balance column. Computerized systems must provide a list, by student, of cash balances which should sum to the “Prepaid Food Trust.”

Connection Between Children’s Emotions, Mental Skills and Eating Habits

Agricultural Research Service scientists are studying the relationship between eating behaviors and cognitive control as an avenue to address childhood obesity. ARS photo by Scott Bauer.

American children are gaining weight. Obesity now affects one in six children and adolescents in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s a major concern because extra pounds can increase risk for developing serious health problems in children, including diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

While strategies to reduce childhood obesity include improving diet and increasing exercise, USDA scientists are looking for ways to prevent behaviors in children that may lead to obesity. Nutritionist Kevin Laugero, who works at the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s (ARS) Western Human Nutrition Research Center in Davis, California, recently investigated the relationship between obesity, unhealthy eating behaviors and decreased mental skills in 3- to 6-year-olds.

Laugero and his colleagues at the University of California-Davis discovered, for the first time, a connection between young children’s eating behaviors and experiencing an emotional state. The team also found that mental skills, referred to here as “cognitive control,” are significantly associated with overeating and emotions.

Cognitive control allows us to remember, plan, organize, make decisions, manage time, maintain emotional and self-control, and curb inappropriate behavior.

“At an early age, these skills are rapidly developing,” Laugero says. “If we’re able to understand the relationship between eating behaviors and cognitive control, we may be able to develop preventive methods for young children to help control obesity.”

Researchers conducted several experiments to examine the balance between emotional state, snacking and cognitive control in preschool children. Cognitive control was measured through computerized and hands-on tasks, parent questionnaires and standardized teacher reports.

“Our research suggests that, even at a young age, children with lower cognitive control skills may be more likely to engage in emotional-based overeating,” Laugero says. “On the other hand, our results suggest that children with higher cognitive control skills may be less likely to overeat.”

Laugero and his colleagues are considering further studies, using intervention strategies, to improve cognitive control during preschool years. They would then follow up with children to see whether intervention encourages healthier eating habits, including less emotional eating, later in life

Posted by Sandra Avant, Public Affairs Specialist, Agricultural Research Service, on March 22, 2016 at 11:00 AM