School Lunch Tray Table Talk Transcript: June 17, 2021 Presenters: Speaker 1 – Shannon Yearwood, Speaker 2 – Susan Alston, Speaker 3 – Susan Fiore, Speaker 4 – Fionnuala Brown, Speaker 5 – Monica Pacheco Speaker 6 – Andy Paul, Speaker 7 – Teri Dandeneau, Sean Fogarty, Hostess – Michelle Rosado 0:03 Speaker 1 - Hi, and welcome to our last School Lunch Tray Table Talk for the School Year 2021. I’m Shannon Yearwood, the Education Manager with the Child Nutrition Programs at the Connecticut State Department of Education. 0:17 Joining me today is who I like to refer to as “Team Awesome,” because you have probably the best state administrators that any State could ask for, and they are right here as a resource for you to tap into. You know these are very strange times and just because this is the end of the Table Talk for this school year does not mean we are going anywhere. So certainly keep reaching out to us with your questions. 0:40 Um you guys know who your contacts are out there, who's on our team, so thank you so much for joining us. 0:45 Uh keep in mind, these at this will act as an open office hours, so certainly ask us your questions, type those into the box. We might run out of time, we have a packed agenda today, um and so that will help us be able to follow up with you. Or potentially develop some more resources that we know that that's some information that is good for the entire state, so thank you again for joining us, um and keep in mind these are recorded. 1:09 I know you have bookmarked our program guidance on your browser bars, so make sure you just go there and go out to School Lunch Tray Table Talk, or our training section, and you'll be able to find the recordings and all of the past issues there school year. 1:24 So, just a couple of quick updates before we leap into this. Um USDA did recently released a Q and A around operating meals for July 1st moving forward, into the next school year. 1:37 Please, when you run across that, and you look at it, please know that, as I usually say, and I'm going to remind you uh USDA has to create a national policy that fits for every single state and every single territory. 1:49 That doesn't always work exactly verbatim in our state as it is written at the federal level. So give us a little bit to digest that we have sent a series of questions back to USDA to make sure that we are fully understanding what the intent is and how to move forward. So don't just don't just act on the nationwide waivers. Don't just act on the Q and A's, please wait until you see some communication from us on how that can be implemented here within the context of our state laws regulations, that's just a quick reminder for you. Connecticut State Department of Education Page 1 of 26 School Lunch Tray Table Talk Transcript: June 17, 2021 2:22 Um a couple of other things, I know that folks are wondering what's happening with these Emergency operating costs, that we have applied for, and we just approved last week, or earlier this week. I can't quite remember time anymore these days, like the rest of us here. And so, we have been approved for that on our schools end, and we are just awaiting the actual funds from the Department from the USDA. Once we receive those, we have a plan to be able to turn those around and get them back out to you as fast as possible. 2:49 We will also host a short webinar to be able to just talk you through how those calculations are done, and what to look for. 2:56 Um so stay tuned. We'll send out more information on that soon. 3:00 We're still working on our Child and Adult Care Food Program, emergency operating costs. 3:05 That is a little bit more nuanced in a lot of ways. So for those CACFP providers out there who might be joining us, please know that we should have more information and updates for you soon. 3:18 So I also want to give a huge shout out to the folks over at Meriden Public schools. I just had the opportunity to be able to come back from an amazing summer outreach event that kicks off the Summer Meals Program, and we had a national speaker there from Hunger Free America, Joel Burn, a lot of you know him. 3:35 A really great discussion. 3:36 Governor Lamont came out to help celebrate and really, really recognize all of the work that you're doing. 3:43 We also had our acting commissioner from the Department of a, Department of Education Commissioner Russell-Tucker, and we had Commissioner Hurlburt, along with the CEO and President of Food Share and Connecticut Food Bank, and we had the President of the School Nutrition Association and the School Nutrition Association of Connecticut. 4:04 We had a few other folks around the table, but it was a really great discussion and great president. And so, I know a few of you, I heard from our team as I have already seen some of the live coverage, but I believe there will be more coverage on that. So what, what I do want to do is say thank you for everything that you're doing, really focused on all of the work that goes behind these programs. Connecticut State Department of Education Page 2 of 26 School Lunch Tray Table Talk Transcript: June 17, 2021 4:25 The health and safety risks that you take every day and took from the very beginning of this pandemic, um to make sure that kids never, never had to go a day and not know where their next meal will come from, and we can't thank you enough for that. 4:40 Um another quick update is are on the webinar, you'll see two different handouts, these were just recently released by the Department of Education. 4:49 We have invested 8.6 million in the ACER funding to be able to support 236 Summer enrichment programs across the state this summer. 5:00 These enrichment programs will serve 97,000 additional students over the summertime, and you can better bet a lot of you will probably be feeding those kids too. So we are here to help support those efforts. 5:12 Um that said, keep in mind, we are a small but mighty team, so certainly, work with us, read our instructions, follow those before you reach out to us, because we definitely have our hands full and helping support you and make sure that you are authorized to do what you want to be able to do for the summer. 5:27 Um with that, I believe oh, yes, the last thing I want to say is make sure that you are, so as we are working to furiously approve your summer applications, whether you're operate through the Summer Food Service Program, or the Seamless Summer Option, um, as you know, you guys spend a lot of time at the district level, writing and submitting the information, putting the information together for those applications. 5:51 So, imagine when we get them from across the state on our end, and then we provide that individualized technical assistance support. 5:58 So we may be a little bit delayed in getting some of that information, that site data out on that location finder um for summer meals this year. 6:08 So that's just reality, is how it is, it takes a while for us to take that information back out of our system, to provide it to our partners, so make sure that once your sites are approved and officially ready for action, um that you make sure to promote those on your website, to, we are going to be telling public, that they can find information at the school districts, websites too, and from the schools, as well as, our community based organizations who are participating in summer meals. Connecticut State Department of Education Page 3 of 26 School Lunch Tray Table Talk Transcript: June 17, 2021 6:34 Certainly make sure that you are publicizing your site and we will get that data out to our partners. We typically publish that as soon as we possibly, humanly can. So with that, I have taken up much more time than I usually do in this introduction. 6:48 And I will go ahead and kick us off by handing over um our presentation to Susan Alston, who will walk you through some more fantastic things. 6:59 Speaker 2 – Good Afternoon, everyone, so I'm gonna kick off the first bullet we sent out yesterday in the School Lunch Tray. I know this as much awaited, so if you haven't had a chance to look at the school lunch tray, I urge you to do so. We sent out the information on State Match. Um State Match was paid um last week. 7:19 It may have even been later that previous week, but this OM outlines the process. So every year, the uh state of Connecticut distributes 2.354 million dollars to the schools that are participating in the National School Lunch Program, um and that happens every year, and you're, if you remember, usually, it's a fall payment and maybe to payment in the Spring.