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Community of Practice Call July 23, 2020
Community of Practice Call July 23, 2020
About this Series
The Center for Ecoliteracy and LunchAssist host regular Community of Practice calls where we review the latest policy updates and highlight tools, best practices, and lessons learned from school districts and allied organizations across the state of California. This free series offers an opportunity for districts to connect with one another, share ideas, and build connections with community partners and government agencies around the state.
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Chat: Community of Practice Call July 23, 2020
Welcome! Please introduce yourself by sharing your name, position and where you work. What is one way you would like to adapt or continue farm to school efforts next year?Julie Garcia, Director of Food Service, Culver City USDGood morning, all, Christina Hecht from UC Nutrition Policy InstituteHello! Jeannie Samari from Earlimart School District ?Hello! I'm Nicole Hite, Operations Supervisor for San Dieguito UHSD.Hello! Ashley Jowell, Stanford University School of MedicineHi my name is Frances Montoya Director of Nutrition Services at Vaughn Charter.Sandy Curwood, State Director, Virginia DOE- supporting schools with local procurement and educational resources for F2SHi all ISa - Cristo Rey High School in San joseHello! Chela Cooper, Maryland State Department of Education Office of School and Community Nutrition ProgramsMorning! Lauren Blacker, Stanford PediatricsDeirdre Kleske, County of San Diego HHSASarah Prince - McMinn County School Nutrition supervisor - TNHello - Kari Johnson with Lunch at the Library ProgramGood Morning! I’m Jennie Norton from Wahluke SD in Mattawa, WA. =)Kristen - Sonoma Valley USDGood Morning, Abby Halperin, Center for Ecoliteracy.Good Morning! I am Emmy Rhodes, interning at UCCE Riverside CalFreshHi Laurel Goins , Director of Food Services , Lucia Mar UnifiedGood morning. Child Nutrition manager at Vallecitos School in Rainbow, San Diego County.Anna Severns, Revolution FoodsHello-Cathy Moen Robla School District DirectorGood morning- Nora Stewart with the Farm to Institution Center at Community Health Improvement Partners, San Diego CountyHi! Jodi Cooper Armona School DistrictJen Reno - Preferred Meals in Southern CA.Good Morning! Erin Primer Director of Food & Nutrition Service San Luis Coastal! We plan on offering a plant-based meal kit as a weekly meal kit option- featuring local items!Meghan Maroney, Center for Science in the Public InterestHello my name is Amy Grant and I am from Galena Park ISD in Texas - We will be opening school virtually until October 5th. We want to utilize CEP and send all meal out using our busses to reach our students.Howday all, Ed Burke with Santa Rosa City Schools.Good morning! Brenda Ruiz, Sacramento Food Policy CouncilMaddy Moritsch, Alliance for a Healthier GenerationHello! Charlotte Hargrave, Operations Manger, Redondo Beach USDHello! Erica Lee, Student Wellness Coordinator at Robla School DistrictMorning! Rachel Waugh from the Chef Ann FoundationHi. Mary Flores, Program Coordinator, University of IL Extensiongood morning! Linda Ha -Supervisor at Cupertino USDMechelle Finney FSD from Lakeport Unified School DistrictHello from Santa Clarita ValleyGood morning. Debbie Friedman, Food Climate StrategiesGood morning! Bailey Rose, Community Nutrition Adviser, Bay Area region, Dairy Council of CAAmanda Mascia / Hunger Free Kids Manager / San Diego Hunger CoalitionColleen Robinson/SDUSD Food & Nutrition ServicesMorning everyone, Krysta Williams from Center for Ecoliteracy.Hi Everyone! Welcome it’s so nice to have everyone here today again for yet another Community Call! Jen with LunchAssist - so excited to see how folks adapt farm to school within the framework of COVID-19 meal service!Hello! Amanda Bast at Ferguson-Florissant School District, in MissouriShout out to Erin!Great way to get so many folks involved, Erin! It looks delicious!How was that video from LA sent to kids?Erin Primer is AMAZINGThe video was shared to the students via teachers and social media.Thanks, Frances!Your team is awesome, Frances!Thanks Jen!Amazing job Vaughn and North Monterey. Such encouraging ideas!Thank you Krysta!No problem Christina!What is the status of the extension of the grace period to 90 days?One challenge is the message is not clear from all the groups.I love that mask!If you want to sign on to CFPA’s letter for waiver extensions: [link]Would LOVE to sign on to SNA’s too!Is that only California?@Sarah Prince - check with your state agency for info specific to your state!We did see $3M for school nutrition in Virginia ([link] Curious if other states are thinking about something similar.Shout out to SD Unified, a true leader in local sourcing, innovative menus, student engagement, and methods of service delivery!Very proud of San Diego Unified! Way to go!Love these ideas - Tell me more about "Love Food Not Waste" activitiesDoes someone have the link to the USDA resource shared?Great job Fred!No worries! Thank you!Here is a great Love Food Not Waste video from SD Unified! [link]so inspired by SD Unified!!!Thank you so much for sharing your innovative ideasWhat is the current CA micro purchasing limit?how are programs meeting the USDA Milk variety rule with classroom dining or remote meals?What ways are you supporting farm to school and/or nutrition education during the pandemic?Emily, I believe it is also 10k but check with your local county and district regulations. They could be lower.Thank you!Were using 1% white milk at breakfast and non-fat chocolate at lunch..Planning to do HOTM tasting video series. Thinking of including mindful eating practices in it. (This activity was inspired from Edible Schoolyard!)How are these materials distributed to students?Hello!! Hello!!HelloWoohoo! FoodCorps is awesome. Hi Morgan!Yes, please feel free to contact me if interested in partnering with a library for the lunch in the library program, in the fall. :)Has anyone received any grants recently?can these grant links be sent to us?If so congrats! Please share what did you get and how much?@ Debbi Lots of these were distributed to students during pick-up or shared on social media.Yes Rachel - all resources discussed today and links will be sent out with the follow up notes!sorry if this is a bit off topic, but.... Do you know whether the meal pattern flexibility waiver can allow us to serve a single K-12 lunch menu? I'm hearing different interpretations of this waiver, and I'm up for review in 2020-2021. Thanks!Sonoma Valley got 3, $3000 grants from the GenYouth Foundation and $1500 from SNA grant!Has there been any update on the potable water requirements?Kristen — congrats on those grants! That is so wonderful.I was approved and the approval says a very general statement waiving the meal patternThank you for sharing Fran ^90 day waiver was mentioned on the CDE Town Hall meeting on 7/14. CDE has requested for a 90 day waiverIt is an automatic immediate approvalCan you "bundle" meals so that you're serving breakfast and lunch to all students? Non-CEP and Non-Provision schoolwhen we applyHas anyone who is sending home multiple meals at once with families experienced a higher cost for bulk milk than 8 oz milk?It is cheaper for usAre you in CA?CA state agency suggests to provide specific, detailed justification on the waiver application for not meeting meal pattern in the comment section (ex: increased food costs, vendor sortage, staff restraints)Wendy, we are sending home 3 quart sized milk containers for a week of breakfast and lunch. The cost is about the same as the equivalent in 8 fl. oz. cartons.@Wendy Castro-Harris, regarding milk, YES, prices for bulk milk are higher than the 8oz in the mid-atlantic regionThanks Dylan for sharing that :DThanks all! I appreciate your feedback on milk. Seems like it's different for all. It seems to be more expensive for us in the LA areaAre staff restraints an acceptable reason to use the waiver?I noticed that was mentioned above.Yesterday in another zoom, one director suggested that we must ensure that each child has access to water - and water is definitely available in the home. So she took the stand that the water requirement was in fact, met.I'm curious how people plan to price their take-home meals during distance learning. Will you have a single price for all grades, or elementary vs secondary prices? And if you go with a single price, what happens once kids return to campus?Does anyone have more info on alternative feeding locations - such as using bus routes or bringing meals to a home of child that has not transportation for pick upI am planning to have a single menu and a single priceWhere do we stand on the weekend meals and supper meals when school startsIt has not been approved by the BoardI am doing a single price for all grades during distance learning.Do you have to ask students if they want breakfast AND lunch or could you just bundle the meals? For example, we are serving multiple days worth of meals.Diane Sharpe- Single Menu k-8 one priceI do not know how I will handle this when students return to school^For Fred, about weekends & suppers, I think everyone is still waiting to hear whether the activity waiver will be continued for CACFP At-Risk. Without that, it would be challenging.We are planning to bundle the meals. Virtual students will pick up once per weekIn Montana, we are promoting the Harvest of the Month videos we have developed for use with teachers, foodservice and parents. They are located on YouTube. Subscribe to our Montana HOM channel to see all of them. We are developing new ones this year (brassicas, cherries coming soon) [link]^ Thank you Katie! We’ll share these in the follow up email:DDoes anyone have a good Meal Counting file to use for classroom diningyesI don’t know how to bundle meals when they are a paid student — you would have to ask if they want lunch or breakfast right?^ I agree with Diane. Paying families may not want to, or be able to, pay for that many meals.^ yes that is yet another struggle with the paid model during the pandemic. Such a good point!Happy to shareWe are having parents display the Meal ID number on their dashboard. We will also give them a caded card for allergies.coded^ nice!Thank you Leyla, water was part of our CSNA zoom yesterday and quite a concern for many directors.Can you drop the link for the Prescott Webinar series in the chat box?In addition to the USDA bulk meal guide, are there other recommendations for ideas/sources for bulk meal kits?That's a great idea for food allergies!That is clever Dr. LewisPrescott Webinar: [link]Thank you!Is anyone planning to have two sizes of take-home meals? One for K-8, one for 9-12? And if so, how will you know how many of each to have at each site?Different colors for different allergies. No overt identifications on the cards.We are going to give each family one sheet that has all students in the family with their bar codes. So when they drive up we scan all.For bulk meals, does anyone have a template or list of potential quantities of items for a Chile to revive 5 days of an item. for example, if we wanted to provide beans for the week, what is the portion size or weight for a week for a MS or HS student... how much milk constitutes 5 days of milk...*Child*recieveFrances, great idea!Yours too Robert1Shout out to Food Corp. They have been a wonderful resource for us in SD. We have hired a few of our past Food Corp members.Check out some of the resource available on our website [link]Thanks Fred and Janelle!!!!In lieu of bar code scans, QR codes can be generated for free and scanned with any phone/tablet camera. (I don't know how to do this, just heard someone talking about it to prevent touch contact and increase flow of the meal pick up).that’s great!!! thanks!!Hi Jackie!! ~~~ We are SO excited to have our service members this upcoming school year. :D Can’t wait to collaborate with them and create innovative ways to educated our students about food!If anyone figures out how to do that, I would be interested in learning how to do it.I will be here August 6!!!The milk amount required for 5 days of meal packs, breakfast and lunch served during SFSP: 1 quart of milk + 2 half pints. We’ve been serving this amount to our students during SFSP here at Wahluke SD in Mattawa, WA.Bye - thank you!!!Thanks for all the great ideas and information!Thank you for this helpful information and networking opportunittyThank you!Looking forward to Aug 6th call and resources. Thank you everyone!!Thank you so much for this meeting — you guys are amazing!!!!Thank you for the great presentation, and everyone who has shared!<3this session was great! thank youThanks- so informative!thank youThanks everyone! We love getting to “see” you all a few times each month and seeing this little community evolve and grow together. Take care and see you all again soon!Thank you!Great information! thank youThank you!0
