CNAC Minutes for the September 25, 2023 Meeting

Council Members

• Jackie Day, Vice Chair
• Kim Frinzell
• Cristine Holmer
• Jane Alvarado-Banister
• Ryan Alvarez
• Carrie Buck
• Maryam Shayegh
• Natalie Cole
• Ronald Little
• Holly Hungerford Cocking
• Absent: Clell Hoffman, Chair

Guests

• Blake Johnson, Legislative Representative, California Department of Education (CDE)
• Jackie Richardson, Nutrition Education Administrator, CDE
• Andrea Bricker, Nutrition Education Consultant, CDE
• Ellen Sweeney, Associate Governmental Program Analyst, CDE

Administrative Activities

Call to order

Pledge of Allegiance

Approve September 2023 California Nutrition Advisory Council (CNAC) agenda:

Motion to approve agenda. Seconded. September agenda approved.

Approve May 2023 CNAC meeting minutes:

Motion to approve March meeting minutes. Seconded. Minutes approved.

Request for Public Comment

No public comment.

Agenda Items

Item 1: Legislative Updates - Nutrition Services Division (NSD) and Federal Updates

Nutrition Services Division and Federal Updates

Blake Johnson, Legislative updates:

• Legislative session ended September 14^th.
  
  
• Assembly Bill (AB) 95 – Senator Hoover. Pupil nutrition: Pupil Meals. Clarifies allowability that schools may continue to sell an additional meal to a pupil after that pupil has already received one free nutritiously adequate meal that qualifies for federal reimbursement. As of September 13, 2023, the bill is on the Governor’s desk.
  
  
• AB 679 – Senator Wicks. Family childcare homes: meals: reimbursement rates. Increases the reimbursement rate for meals in day care. Clarifies family childcare homes means the same as family day care homes. The bill was held in the first house of appropriations. Senator Wicks has the option to reintroduce next year.
  
  
• AB 1178 – Rivas. School nutrition: Guardian Meal reimbursement. This bill requires the CDE to establish a state reimbursement process for federal summer meal program operators to serve a meal to guardians of eligible pupils in a federal summer meal program. As of September 1, 2023, failed deadline but has the option to reintroduce next year.
  
  
• Senate Bill (SB) 348 Senator Skinner. Pupil Meals: Co-sponsored by State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SSPI). Proposes the CDE to assess time to eat. If the federal School Breakfast Program and federal National School Lunch Program allow more added sugar or sodium than is recommended by the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans, CDE will convene with other representatives to develop recommendations for added sugar and sodium limitations.
  
  
• SB 628 – Senator Hurtado. State Healthy Food Access Policy: Declares it is established policy that every human being has right to access healthy food. The bill would require all relevant state agencies to consider this state policy when revising, adopting, or establishing policies, regulations, and grant criteria when those policies, regulations, and grant criteria are pertinent to the distribution of sufficient affordable food. The bill is on the Governor’s desk. He has until October 14^th to sign the legislation.

Kim Frinzell, NSD and Federal Updates:

• The CDE continues to coordinate with the Department of Finance regarding meals served and cost projections.
  
  
  • For School Year (SY) 2022–23 we are projecting over 830 million meals served.
    
    
  • October brings many opportunities to invite local, state, and federal officials to schools to showcase work being done: elevating the importance of school meal programs and the connection between access, farm to school, and culturally appropriate meals.
    
    
• State Investments:
  
  
  • School Foods Best Practices grant: $100 million in state dollars. Informational webinar coming up.
    
    
  • Kitchen Infrastructure and Training funds: $600 million.
    
    
  • Dishwasher grant: $15 million for commercial, energy efficient dishwashers. This will be very competitive. Roughly $40,000 per kitchen.
    
    
• Federal Investments:
  
  
  • Local Foods for Schools funds: $23 million. Building partnerships with small socially disadvantaged farmers, rangers, producers.
    
    
  • Supply Chain Assistance funds (Round 4): $420 million across all 4 rounds. Opt-in will happen this month. Funds available in December.
    
    
  • Equipment Assistance Grant: A little over $3 million. U.S. Department of Agriculture approved our request for proposals. Applications are due in December.
    
    
  • Possible federal shutdown in Congress.
    
    
• Two town halls in October: October 3^rd and October 31^st.

Item 2: Recruitment Discussion

Jackie Richardson: The NSD plans to begin the CNAC recruitment and reappointment process for open CNAC positions. Membership in CNAC is on a 3-year cycle. Eight positions are under recruitment. The SSPI may also appoint specific individuals to these positions. Once the recruitment process is completed, we will also need to select a new CNAC chair.

Item 3: Members Continue to Work on Action Plans

Kim, Andrea, Jackie provided feedback on action plans in Teams. Take time today to look at feedback and continue to discuss deliverables, etc. Feedback is meant to provide a state perspective on these items.

Lunch Break

Meeting adjourned for lunch at 12:01 p.m. Reconvene at 1 p.m.

Break

Item 3, continued: Members Continue to Work on Action Plans

1:06 p.m. meeting called to order.

Request for Public Comment on Items 4 through 6

No public comment.

Item 4: Teams Present Action Plan, Progress, and Next Steps

Group 1: Access to nutrition during out of school time

• Action plan includes recommendations for addressing participation barriers. Still finalizing some strategies.
  
  
• Deliverable is a recommendation to the Superintendent.

Group 2: Increasing access to school breakfast

• White paper includes best practices on how to access breakfast, potential challenges, and resources.

Group 3: Adequate seat time

• Work on 2-page infographic.
  
  
• Next steps: Exploring the possibility of a state toolkit or enhancement to the CA Meals for Kids app with a link for families to access hours and other information about school meals, not just during summer.
  
  
• Follow up with Clell to finalize the infographic with his information during next CNAC meeting.

Item 5: CNAC Travel Reporting and Next Steps

Complete the required travel forms and submit the corresponding original receipts and send them to Jackie Richardson. CNAC members should complete and submit the provided travel reimbursement forms within 30 days.

Item 6: Discuss Agenda Items and Scheduling for November 2, 2023 Meeting

• Discuss recommendations for continuing CNAC work with new members in 2024.
  
  
• The Recognition of CNAC member service.
  
  
• Invite the Superintendent.
  
  
• Wrap up action items.
  
  
• A motion for the next meeting to be in-person; Seconded; November meeting will be in-person.

Request for Public Comment

No public comment.

Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 2:56 p.m.