Non-Congregate Meal Service Option in Rural Areas

SMP operators can provide up to ten calendar days’ worth of unitized meals to children during a single meal distribution with prior California Department of Education (CDE) approval. A unitized multi-day distribution means that the meals require no preparation and are ready to be consumed. When providing unitized meals, the SMP operator must include a written menu, food safety instructions and sanitation guidelines including but not limited to, instructions on meal storage and disposal, and refrigeration and heating (when applicable). All meals must be prepared and served in a manner that complies with all the California Retail Food Code and all local city and county health and food safety regulations.

The maximum allowable number of meals that may be offered is up to two meals, or one meal and one snack, per child, per day, in any combination except lunch and supper. These meal services must be accurately reflected in the approved Child Nutrition Information and Payment System (CNIPS) site application(s). SMP operators are required to have written procedures to ensure that their multi-day meal service follows guidelines and regulations.

With prior CDE approval, approved self-preparation SMP operators may provide bulk food items that meet the minimum amounts of each meal component of a reimbursable meal or snack. SMP operators must ensure that the required meal components for each reimbursable meal are served. All food items that contribute to a reimbursable meal must be clearly identifiable and menus must be provided to participants, clearly indicating the food items and portion sizes for each reimbursable meal. Meal preparation such as heating and warming, must be minimal (7 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] 225.16 [i][3]).

When providing bulk meals, SMP operators should clearly label which foods require refrigeration or freezing and include cooking or heating instructions for food safety. SMP operators are also encouraged to include additional food safety instructions to parents or guardians, including, but not limited to:

• How to properly wash hands with soap and water before preparing or handling food
  
• Wash dishes, utensils, tables and counter tops with hot, soapy water before and after eating and handling food
• Refrigerate or freeze meals and refrigerate milk as soon as possible and within 2 hours after pick-up or delivery

All meals must be prepared and served in a manner that complies with all the California Retail Food Code and all local city and county health and food safety regulations.

The maximum allowable number of meals that may be offered is up to two meals, or one meal and one snack, per child, per day, in any combination except lunch and supper. These meal services must be accurately reflected in the approved CNIPS site application(s). SMP operators are required to have written procedures to ensure that their bulk meal service follows guidelines and regulations.

SMP operators must ensure that the maximum number of reimbursable meals provided to a child does not exceed the number of meals that could be provided over a 5-calendar day period.

With CDE prior approval, SMP operators may distribute meals to parents or guardians to take home to their children. The SMP operator is required to have written procedures to ensure that meals are only distributed to parents or guardians of eligible children and that duplicate meals are not distributed.

The USDA defines a parent or guardian as an individual that maintains a caregiver relationship between themselves and the child on the day of the meal service (SFSP 08-2024, SP 15-2024 Question 26 ).

Individuals who are caring for groups of unrelated children who are formally enrolled in care are not considered guardians and cannot collect meals as a result.

The home delivery meal service option allows approved SMP operators to deliver meals directly to a child's residence. SMP operators are required to have written procedures to ensure that home delivery meal service follows program regulations and to protect program integrity.

SMP operators must collect written parental consent prior to delivering meals to a child's home. The written consent forms may be hard copies, collected via email or by other electronic means.

For program monitoring purposes, an individual residence is not considered a non-congregate meal site.

SMP operators who use home delivery must identify and invite households of eligible children to participate in the delivery service. Prior to implementing home delivery, operators must:

• Confirm the household’s contact information and the number of children in the household before meal services can begin.

• Obtain written parental consent to deliver meals.

• Verify that each home address to which meals will be delivered, is rural per the USDA rural designation map and is eligible for participation in the SMPs (area eligibility or through individual eligibility documentation).

Federal regulations require that if an operator is not a school food authority (SFA) and plans to obtain individual children’s program eligibility through free and reduced-price school meal eligibility data, then the SMP operator must enter into a written agreement or memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the SFA to use the data for this purpose (7 CFR 225.14[d][8]).

As an alternative to entering into a written agreement or MOU with the local SFA, non-SFA operators may collect their own eligibility data using the household application procedures outlined in program regulations at 7 CFR 225.15(f) to identify eligible children in non-area eligible areas (SFSP 07-2024, SP 13-2024 Question 14 ). Operators must protect the confidentiality of participants and their households throughout the process and ensure proper handling and storage of student data in accordance with the National School Lunch Act and SFSP regulations (7 CFR 225.15[f] through [l]).

Under limited circumstances, a site may be allowed to operate both a congregate and non-congregate meal service.

SMP operators interested in operating a hybrid meal service of congregate and non-congregate must have CDE prior approval and only conduct a non-congregate meal service when the site is not providing a congregate meal service. Both cannot be conducted simultaneously. The SMP operator must also have an organized and supervised system preventing overlap between meal services while ensuring that children will not receive more than the daily maximum allowance of meals.

USDA provides the following examples in which sites can operate as both congregate and non-congregate, as defined in USDA question #8 in Policy Memo SFSP 07-2024, SP 13-2024 and question #11 in USDA Policy Memo SFSP 08-2024, SP 15-2024 :

• A site that only offers breakfast through a congregate meal service may be approved to provide a lunch through non-congregate meal service. In these instances, meal services must not be concurrent, so, in this example, the non-congregate lunch meal service must be conducted after the congregate breakfast meal service has concluded.
  
  
• A site that serves lunch and breakfast three days a week may be approved to provide non-congregate meals for days with no congregate service, including weekends. Program operators must have a written program integrity plan and processes in place that ensure children are not receiving more meals than are allowable under federal regulations and that duplicate meals are not served.
  
  
• A site that operates in the month of July, may be approved to provide non-congregate meals for the period following their last congregate meal service day. Operators shifting from congregate to non-congregate meal service are required to submit an updated CNIPS site application prior to implementing changes to their meal service.

A conditional non-congregate site is a site which qualifies for program participation because it conducts a non-congregate meal service for eligible children in rural areas who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, but it is not located in areas in which poor economic conditions exist and is not a camp.

A conditional non-congregate site may receive reimbursement only for meals served to children who meet the eligibility standards for free or reduced-price meals. Sites requesting to operate as a conditional non-congregate site must make individual eligibility determinations for each child and only claim meals served to eligible children for reimbursement.

SFSP operators can charge for meals provided to children who are not determined to be eligible for free or reduced-price meals at conditional non-congregate sites.