On October 1, the Office of Management and Budget increased the micro-purchase threshold from $10,000 to $15,000. Effective immediately, all Organizations (formerly known as Contracting Entities) can use this higher threshold when using the micro-purchase method of procurement. All handbooks will be updated soon to reflect this new threshold. All other procurement requirements remain unchanged.

The Annual NSLP Financial Report opens on January 5, 2026, and closes March 27, 2026. School food authorities (SFAs) will use data from school year 2024-2025 to complete this report.

If the Annual NSLP Financial Report identifies an excess fund balance of the SFA's six-month average operating expenses, the SFA must complete an Excess Net Cash Resource Plan and submit to School.Operations@TexasAgriculture.gov.

The Excess Net Cash Resource Plan can be found here.

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One of the most common things CEs request is more recipes. TDA has heard the requests and is seeking recipe submissions from Texas school districts and childcare providers to share. If you have recipes your students love that you’d like to share, please submit them and a photo here.

Annual Transfer Exercise - To begin the new year, the Annual Transfer Exercise will launch on Thursday, January 1, and run through April 15, helping to reduce processors' overall inventories and state accounts. This exercise occurs annually to alleviate excess inventory from processor and school district accounts by redistributing pounds for drawdown use. School districts requesting or transferring pounds will conduct the change via SmartSheet starting Thursday, January 1, 2026.

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January’s important USDA Foods updates for schools include information and resources to help prepare for PY27 ordering with resources and ESC support. 

Click here to see the USDA Foods Ordering Updates for January.

TDA has revised and published the Excess Net Cash Resources Plan template to clarify that TDA's signature on a submitted form indicates a cursory review of the form was completed and does not reflect an approval of all procurements listed by the School Food Authority on the form. All procurement, including capital expenditure requests, must comply with federal regulations and TDA guidance.

The revised form is located on the NSLP Administration/Forms page on SquareMeals.

Thank you for taking some time to join and participate in our January TANS Talk webinar. Click here to find a recap presentation of the talking points that were discussed and a video recording of the webinar.

You can also find January's TANS Talk video recording and PowerPoint slides on SquareMeals under "TANS Updates."