Events, Trainings, and Resources
Explore the Turnip the Beet 2023 Nomination Form to see how you can win this USDA award! Check out the link in the title above for a best practice guide with tips from previous Texas awardees on how to run an outstanding Summer Meal Program!
Order Now! Summer Food, Summer Moves Resources
Get Ready for Summer with these no cost, USDA printed materials:
1) Placemat (Eng/Span)
2) Poster Set (Eng/Span)
3) Resource Kit (25 students; Eng/Span)
June 20th at 3pm EDT, Join No Kid Hungry for the fifth and final webinar of the five-part webinar series, School's Out, Food's In. This webinar will talk about how to seamlessly transition from serving summer to afterschool meals and include tips on maintaining sites and streamlining operations for the two programs. Register here.
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 complete this short survey to provide valuable information that will guide the Nutrition team’s plans for the fall. The survey will close June 30.
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.
New participant notification forms for closed enrolled/camp sites, a household application prototype, a first two weeks site visit sample form, and a sample site review form were recently posted to the Summer Meals Administration/Forms page on SquareMeals.org.
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!
TDA would like to announce new vacant positions. Click to browse employement opportunities.