Congratulations to Mae Tartt, from MET, Inc. for winning the CACFP LIVE drawing! She won a basket of goodies for herself and her childcare center! Thank you to all who participated and attended our CACFP LIVE classes. Look for them to start up again in the new 2025 Program Year.

TDA announces the development of a new nutritional system, Texas Automated Nutrition System, coming Program Year 26.

Beginning with program year 2026, program sponsors, ESC users, and TDA staff will administer nutrition programs through TANS.

Management of applications, claims, monitoring and compliance, reporting and other administrative functions will be in TANS for the following programs:

• School Nutrition Programs
• Child and Adult Care Food Program
• Summer Meal Programs
• Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program
• Special Milk Program
• Food Distribution Program

TDA is requiring all sponsors of unaffiliated At-Risk sites to complete the Valid Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) At-Risk Unaffiliated Site Questionnaire/Attestation Form.

This form must be submitted no later than June 30, 2024. On July 1, TDA will begin closing all unaffiliated At-Risk sites for which a form has not been submitted with an effective closing date of September 30. Please refer to the Sponsor Under a Sponsor FAQs for more information on this new process

Summer meals are important for Texas children to continue to have access to high quality meals. Turnip the Beet is a national recognition program that aims to showcase sponsors who are going above and beyond during the summer months in providing appealing and nutritious meals.

Check out the SquareMeals page for new and updated resources

to assist with your 2024 Turnip the Beet application.

• Application Toolkit: Application tips, best practices from 2023 TUB awardees, and an example nomination form
• Summer Activity Toolkit: Curated nutrition-based summer activities and resource

USDA has released the USDA Summer Food Service Program Administration Guide, which supersedes the previous USDA Administrative Guidance for Sponsors Handbook that was last released in 2016. The new SFSP Administration Guide describes the policies and best practices for successful operation of traditional in-person summer meal sites and alternate meal service options for rural communities. It is tailored to anyone who is interested in learning program policy including, but not limited to, how to participate, apply, administer, and operate the SFSP at various levels.

Note that TDA is still providing additional guidance via the SFSP Supplemental Handbook, and efforts to consolidate USDA's guidance and information from the Supplemental Handbook into a comprehensive TDA SFSP Handbook are currently underway.

USDA's SFSP Administration Guide can be found at: https://www.fns.usda.gov/sfsp/administration-guide.