Dear Food Services Directors:

Welcome Back to School

On behalf of the California Department of Education’s (CDE) Nutrition Services Division (NSD), I am excited to welcome our new and returning school nutrition leaders and professionals to the start of the 2024–25 School Year (SY). As we embark on the new program year, it is important to also reflect upon and acknowledge the splendid work you do year-round to ensure our children have easy access to healthy meals and snacks throughout the state.

Universal Meals

California continues to be a national leader in the successful implementation of Universal Meals. Since 2022, Universal Meals has sustained access to nutritious meals for California’s school children, reducing childhood hunger, eliminating stigma for the meal programs, and increasing equity for all. State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, along with the Legislature, understand the value Universal Meals provides to California’s nearly six million public school children and continue to offer their support through robust state funding. In SY 2023–24, approximately 872 million School Nutrition Program (SNP) meals were served in California. Equally exciting, to date, 7,176 school sites are approved for Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) and 960 school sites are approved for Provision 2. Compared to SY 2023–24, this is a 12 percent increase in CEP participating sites and a six percent increase in the number of Provision 2 sites. These figures continue to illustrate your sustained commitment to supporting Universal Meals and maximizing federal and state meal reimbursements. Together, we can achieve the greatest reach of these investments and resources by ensuring proper eligibility determinations are made for all students, further maximizing federal funding.

Summer Meal Programs

This year marks a historic expansion of our Summer Meal Programs. With the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) release of the Interim Final Rule in December 2023, the permanent Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer Program (Sun Bucks) was established, as was the new rural non-congregate option in the Summer Meals Programs.

This summer, the California Sun Bucks program is providing approximately 5.5 million eligible children with $120 in electronic food benefits to purchase much needed groceries during the summer months. Eligibility for this year’s Sun Bucks benefits continues through August 31, 2024, so it is important to keep student information up to date in the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS). Any questions from families regarding Sun Bucks can be directed to the California Department of Social Services Electronic Benefits Transfer Customer Service Support line at 877-328-9677.

Thank you to so many of our summer meal sponsors who courageously and successfully operated the rural non-congregate summer meal service option. As a result of this option, 141 rural summer meal sites operated non-congregate feeding this summer. What a great benefit to the children in rural communities with limited access to nutritious summer meals.

Grant Funding Opportunities

Over the past several years, our school nutrition community has benefited from more than one billion dollars in state and federal grants and special funding opportunities, including the Kitchen Infrastructure and Training funds, Local Food for Schools, School Food Best Practices, Supply Chain Assistance, and federal Equipment Assistance grants. These investments in kitchen infrastructure, professional development, and local and California-grown foods further reinforce the important role that quality, nutritious school meals play in a child’s education and overall wellbeing.

I have much admiration for your thoughtful and forward-thinking strategies in meeting the intent and goals of the various grants to expand, support, and transform California’s SNPs. Please keep sharing your pictures, stories, and best practices; these help the CDE elevate and celebrate how these investments are impacting your programs.

Training and Technical Assistance

After a long hiatus, the NSD team is happy to be resuming in-person training sessions to augment the many self-paced, on-demand, online trainings that are available to you and your teams. Last SY, we launched the statewide in-person Resource Management and Procurement Training which provided best practices, tips, resources, monitoring guidance, and compliance strategies, all with a goal of operating financially viable programs, supporting strong purchasing practices, and enhancing internal controls. We are also offering our in-person Introduction to School Nutrition Program Administration Training. This training supports new SNP directors and managers by providing a comprehensive overview of SNP requirements.

Additionally, we are shifting our online training opportunities to a learning management system to provide a more interactive learning experience and to help you track and document your training. Stay tuned for more information that we will provide in the coming months.

During SY 2024-25 we will continue to host the monthly Tuesday @ 2 Town Hall live webinars. The Town Halls provide updates to federal and state policies, funding announcements, and valuable resources sharing.

To stay connected, be sure you and your team are signed up for the SNP Mailing List at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/sn/snpmail.asp to receive the latest SNP information.

Final Rule - Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent With the 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

In April, the USDA published the final rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent With the 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The final rule made changes to Child Nutrition Programs in the following areas: nutrition standards for added sugars and sodium, added menu planning flexibilities that support vegetarian diets and other dietary preferences, and additional support for local procurement through geographic preference, Buy American, and professional standards. These changes are intended to ensure greater access to wholesome and healthy meals for kids, continued support for locally sourced food options, enhanced farm to school connections, and more opportunities to provide quality, culturally relevant, and scratch-cooked meal options.

Implementation will be phased in over the next three years and some even a bit beyond. Because most of the meal standard changes take effect in SY 2025–26 and some in SY 2026–2027, this current school year offers critical planning and communications opportunities. The CDE NSD team will assist you along the way by developing guidance, updating resources, creating training opportunities, and much more. In the meantime, become familiar with all the changes available on the USDA’s Updates to School Nutrition Standards web page at https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/school-nutrition-standards-updates.

In closing, I want share how incredibly proud I feel to be a part of California’s school nutrition professional community. I look forward to another amazing year as we work together to challenge ourselves by setting the standard high to offer delicious, quality school meals.
In the spirit of collaboration, continuous improvement, and making a positive difference in the lives of California’s children,

Kim Frinzell, RD, Director Nutrition Services Division