Food and Nutrition Programs

Investing in School Nutrition Programs

State support for universal free school meals and ample United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant opportunities have provided robust funding for school nutrition programs across the Commonwealth. These funds represent a great opportunity for districts to not only eradicate stigma in the lunch line by providing breakfast and lunch at no charge to all families, but to also invest in school nutrition programs. This memorandum is intended to review new funding for school meals, regulations governing the nonprofit school food service account, allowable expenses and ideas on how take advantage of these funds to invest in your program.

State Funds for Universal Free School Meals

Through the Fiscal Year 2024 State Budget, the state legislature has provided $172M to all districts in exchange for offering breakfast and lunch at no charge to families. The benefits of this funding go beyond addressing student hunger. These funds, in combination with federal funds, allow for reimbursements of over $4 for every lunch and almost $3 for every breakfast served in schools across the Commonwealth in School Year 2023-2024. This represents an historical fiscal investment in school nutrition. From a school nutrition business perspective, the predictable monthly revenue will help with budgeting and create new opportunities to reinvest in the programs including menus. Therefore, it is important to ensure all proceeds deposited into nonprofit school foodservice accounts be used only for school nutrition program related activities as intended by the state legislature and required by federal regulations.

USDA Funding Opportunities

The USDA has provided various funding opportunities for school nutrition programs in addition to the per meal state universal free school meal wrap around payments. Examples include the Northeast Food for Schools (NFS) grant which provides funds specifically for the purchase of local food. Using local food in school meals boosts the nutritional quality of menus and helps support local farms. The Supply Chain Assistance (SCA) funds provide funding for unprocessed or minimally processed domestic food products for use in school meal programs. SCA funds help offset continued food inflation prices and ensure food costs do not overtake school nutrition budgets. Leveraging these funds, in addition to the USDA Foods brown box, processing and DoD Fresh Fruit and Vegetable program, help ensure sufficient funding for labor, supplies, equipment and other necessary costs.

Allowable Costs

As noted in CFR 210.14 and 220.13(i), school food authorities (SFAs) must establish a nonprofit school foodservice account in which all reimbursements and other revenues from food service operations conducted by the SFA are retained and used only for the operation or improvement of the school nutrition program. Federal regulations further require SFAs to safeguard limited assets and ensure they are used only for authorized school food service purposes. This is critical to the fiscal and nutritional integrity of school nutrition programs. All expenditures from the nonprofit school foodservice account must conform to Federal Cost Principles 2 CFR Part 225 which says these costs must be necessary, reasonable, and allocable. For extensive information on general criteria for allowable school nutrition costs, please review the USDA Indirect Cost Manual.

Invest in Your School Nutrition Program

Given the current per meal reimbursement level and USDA funding opportunities for food purchasing, now is the time to invest in your school nutrition program. Incorporating local food into your program may have a higher cost than food purchased from a broadline food distributor, but now the funds are available to purchase fresh local food from local producers, including but not limited to farmers, food hubs, and fishermen, with all products originating within 400-miles. Districts can show off their nutritious school meals featuring local food and share the recipe with other districts through DESE's Terrific Trays Competition.

Staffing continues to be an issue in school kitchens and cafeterias across the state. In a recent School Nutrition Association survey, 93% of school nutrition respondents said they are challenged by staff shortages which can limit efforts to increase scratch cooking. The new state investment in school meals should be used to address staffing shortages and create an adequate staffing level to meet the demands of school food service.

Now is also the time to replace aging and inefficient equipment and purchase new equipment to create fun, fresh dining service experiences for both students and staff. New equipment will not only create a more efficient process but will help create more serving options and an engaging environment for students and staff. Please note that DESE must approve equipment purchases of $5,000 or more.

Lastly, the Office for Food and Nutrition Programs is your partner and here to help. Mark your calendars for Tuesday at 2pm when the Office for Food and Nutrition Programs holds weekly learning opportunities to help school nutrition professionals connect, problem-solve and get inspired. Almost seven out of ten students across the state are eating school lunch, which research shows are the healthiest meals children eat in a day. There is no better time than now to fully invest in school nutrition programs to fuel all our students to be their very best every day.

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