Region 6 will be closed for the Christmas Holidays from December 23rd through January 3rd. We will resume regular operations on January 6, 2025.

Wishing you and your loved ones a safe and joyous holiday season! 🌟🎄

Per TDA, if a CE is a School Food Authority, (SFA) and participates in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), Community Operations will not conduct a financial/procurement review to ease the burden of SFAs. This will ensure that the complete nonprofit food service is reviewed during an NSLP AR.

Hiring consultants and/or representatives to provide operational services and support which are currently supported/sponsored by TDA and TDA partners. A duplicative cost results from a Contracting Entity (CE) paying for the same service under multiple contracts using federal funding. Duplicate costs occur when a CE enters a contract for a service currently provided by TDA or partners of TDA, including Education Service Centers (ESCs) and the Institute of Child Nutrition (ICN). CEs should evaluate their need and assess whether the service desired falls into those provided by TDA or its partners. CEs may not hire consultants for compliance training or technical assistance, as this is the responsibility of TDA and ESCs. However, items such as recipe development and/or marketing or promotions to support quality meals are appropriate consultant uses. The CE should review the current training and services available from TDA, ICN, the ESC, or another contracted vendor before hiring consultants or staff for activities that are potentially duplicative.

Texas Department of Agriculture | Food and Nutrition Division Section 16, Financial System | May 2024 | Page 25 of 61/ARM

USDA has updated the complaint form linked to from the Non-Discrimination Statement to reflect new expiration dates. This non-substantive change requires no action, as participants may still submit complaints to USDA using a previous version. The URL to access the form also remains the same.

TDA has recently updated the Serious Deficiency (SD) Notification Process and SD Notification templates for both Day Care Home (DCH) sponsors and sponsors of unaffiliated child care centers, adult day care centers, and at-risk sites.

Per regulation, when sponsors of day care home providers have determined that one of its providers is seriously deficient in CACFP operations, they must follow a series of steps that will either lead to full correction of the issue or termination/disqualification from the Program. While there are no such regulations for sponsors of unaffiliated centers, TDA is implementing the same process for all CACFP sponsors in anticipation that this alignment will be codified in a Serious Deficiency Final Rule.

Effective immediately, during the SD process, all CACFP sponsors must send official notices to their sites/providers applicable to the current step in the SD process; copies of these notices must also be sent to TDA at the same time.

TDA has recently made updates to this notification process as follows:

-- Creation of a new online CACFP Serious Deficiency Process Notification Form. Sponsors must complete this form and attach a copy of the applicable SD notice throughout the process (previously, TDA required that these forms be emailed). Links to the form are also currently available on the CACFP Administration/Forms page and will be posted on the CACFP National Disqualified List page soon.

-- SD notification templates that were previously available in PDF form via Section 11000 of the CACFP Handbooks have been removed from the handbook and are now available in a separate Word template suite to allow for easier modification. Non-substantive updates for clarity were also implemented within the templates, which are located on the CACFP Administration/Forms page.

-- Sections 10000 and 11000 of the CACFP Handbooks have been updated to reflect this new process as well as other clarifying requirements. All substantive updates are highlighted in each section, and a summary of changes is available at the beginning of each section.

TDA has released a revised Good Cause Transfer Form for Program Year 2024-2025. The form and the recently updated instructions/presentation related to GCTs are available on the CACFP Administration/Forms page.

Note that "Good Cause" for transferring from the sponsorship of one sponsor to another during the Program Year is limited to the following conditions:

-- A sponsor denies a site access to the Program.
-- A sponsor reduces the level of benefit a site receives under the Program
-- Any other good cause as determined by TDA.

The National CACFP Sponsors Association is offering scholarships to attend the 2025 National Child Nutrition Conference on April 14-18 in Dallas! Apply here by January 10th, 2025.

The fiscal year (FY) 2025 Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program request for applications (RFAs) are now open. To apply, visit Grants.gov and follow the instructions found in each FY 2025 RFA. This year the RFA has been split into three separate solicitations, 2 of which are applicable to program operators:

• The Implementation Grant: $50,000 to $500,000 to support the establishment or expansion of comprehensive Farm to School projects.

• The Turnkey Grant: $5,000 to $50,000 to launch or enhance Farm to School activities; agricultural education; or edible gardens.

Please note that you may only apply to ONE (1) of the Patrick Leahy Farm to School grants. The USDA FNS RFA Grant Track Decision document provides helpful guidance for choosing which grant to apply for and offers additional valuable information for the grants. The deadline to apply is January 10, 2025.

To learn more, click here.

USDA’s Team Nutrition is pleased to release an On-Demand CACFP Halftime: Thirty on Thursdays Webinar titled, “Choose Breakfast Cereals That Are Lower in Added Sugars in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).” This On-Demand Webinar highlights the new added sugars limit for breakfast cereals and how to identify products that meet this limit. The training is available in English and Spanish and includes a “Frequently Asked Questions” section to address common questions and concerns related to serving breakfast cereals that meet the added sugars limit in the CACFP.

Visit this webpage titled “Choose Breakfast Cereals That Are Lower in Added Sugars in the CACFP” to get the training worksheet, training slides, and recorded video. Also, check out the “Calculating the Added Sugars Limit for Breakfast Cereals in the CACFP” training worksheet.

The National CACFP Sponsors Association (NCA) is also offering the opportunity to submit and track this training for continuing education credits. Additional information on this opportunity is available here from NCA.

Advance registration for the 2025 National Child Nutrition Conference closes this Thursday, December 5th, so this is the best time to lock in the lowest rate that is offered for five days of training, networking and fun!

· Register for as low as $439

· Explore the Conference