TDA Nutrition Feedback Survey
We need your feedback! The Nutrition unit at TDA would like feedback from school nutrition professionals to understand your nutrition knowledge needs and to help improve the service and delivery of resources in these nutrition supported areas: School Breakfast Week, CACFP Week, National School Lunch Week, School Lunch Hero Day, Meal Appeal, and more!
Please click here or scan the QR code to complete the short survey to provide valuable information that will guide the Nutrition team’s plans for the fall. The survey will close June 30.
Coming Soon! NSLW Digital Resources and Materials Order Form
Mark your calendars: National School Lunch Week (NSLW) “Level Up with School Lunch” Digital Resources will be available for download on SquareMeals starting July 6. The form to place orders for no-cost printed materials (e.g., posters and parent flyers) will also be available in July. Use these resources to “level up” your NSLW celebrations on October 9-13!
While regulations now allow closed enrolled SFSP and SSO sites to operate in areas in which 50% of the children qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a site must meet certain criteria before being approved to operate as closed enrolled instead of open or restricted open.
USDA has provided clarification that Dole Wiggles Fruit Juice Gels do not meet the definition of "gelatin" and thus may be creditable in the Child Nutrition Programs. However, because the product is labeled as being made in Thailand, school food authorities must ensure that these fruit gels are only procured if the purchase meets the limited exception criteria of the Buy American provision.
Crediting Grains in the Child Nutrition Programs Tip Sheets are the last three in the series of seven tip sheets. They provide guidance on crediting grains in a quick reference format for Program operators across all Child Nutrition Programs. Each tip sheet has its own question-and-answer section.
Users of the Professional Standards Training Tracker Tool now have an option to add an associated certification to training logs for recurring trainings or courses that result in a certification. An additional option is also now available to log certifications separate from training hours.
The Summer Meal Programs provide healthy and nutritious meals after the school year ends to children 18 years and younger and enrolled students with disabilities up to 21 years old. The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) has developed no-cost, online resources and printed materials you can use to promote the availability of these meals for families in need. Make sure you are utilizing new materials this year. Please visit the Summer Meals Resources linked in the title above to order no-cost, print materials today!
Functionality issues and errors have been reported with the recently released Paid Lunch Equity tool for districts using older version of Microsoft Excel, dating back to at least the 2016 version.
July 1st of each year, the annual redistribution of pounds is applied to all accounts. Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) will conduct a redistribution of pounds for all Recipient Agency (RA) accounts participating in USDA Foods for further processing.
