In this section we will discuss meal service requirements. Meals can only be claimed for reimbursement if they are: Serve at approved sites/times as listed in CNPweb, Site serving times and days of the week can and should be updated throughout the summer, Changes must be approved prior to implementation into the site’s operation, and Field Trips. To obtain approval for a field trip fill out the request form on your sponsor information sheet in CNPweb. E-mail the state agency letting them know you have requested field trip approval. Provide 10 days advance notice.
Regular sites such as open, open restricted, closed enrolled may claim a single meal or snack, 2 meals, a meal and a snack, or 2 snacks per day. Supper and lunch are not an allowable combination unless the site is a migrant or camp site. Migrants and camps can be approved up to 3 meals per day. Multiple sponsors can work together offer eligible meals, but cannot exceed the two meals, meal and snack, or two snack per site per day rule. Different meals may be offered on different days of the week. One sponsor can offer meals during the week and a different sponsor during the weekend. If one sponsor only operates part of the summer another sponsor can take over and continue offering meals throughout the rest of the summer.
Point of service meal counts are your record of who received a fully reimbursable meal. It is taken when a child has received all required food components in at least the minimum required serving sizes. Point of Service meal counts should not be taken before the food is served. Typically a staff member stands at the end of the serving line and counts meals as children pass by with all of the required components. Meal counts must be independent from attendance. Just because a child was present at the site does not mean they selected a fully reimbursable meal. Point of service meal counts may be done by hand or electronically; If you’re able to take point of service counts electronically (either on a tablet or computer), it would be a great time saver for you in operating the food program, but make sure that you have a back up system in place. Offer versus serve allows children to self select the items and components they wish to each and is an option at some sites. This will be addressed more in depth in the operational meals service section of this training.
Meal count records must include: date of meal service, the number of meals delivered or prepared. If vended transport records/delivery receipts must be signed by the person receiving the delivery. Complete first meals served to children by type (breakfast, lunch, etc.). Complete second meals served to children by type (breakfast, lunch, etc.). Excess/Leftover meals, non-reimburseable meals, meals served to program adults (if you are serving adults), meals served to non-program adults (if you are providing meals to staff). Meal counts for camps must be taken by name to determine of all the meals served which can be claimed for reimbursement. A sample meal count form can be found in the USDA Admin Guide Attachment 17.
In order to submit a claim for reimbursement, you’ll need to total up all of the meals that you served. Camps will need to determine which of the meals served were eligible for reimbursement. You’ll probably want to total up the meals at the end of the day or week, rather than waiting until the end of the month to add up the meal counts. Counting up the entire month at one time takes a lot of time and can increase the chance of errors. Camps should also take care to keep the eligibility information for each of the children confidential during the counting and consolidation process. Each site will indicate the maximum number of meals they could serve on a given day when completing their site information sheet in CNPweb. This is referred to as a site CAP. Meals cannot be claimed in excess of this CAP.
Meal counts should be filled out in a way that it is clear how many eligible meals were served. Meal counts should be totaled each day and then week by site staff. These counts should then be sent to the sponsor if they are responsible for filing he claim. We recommend a second person add up the claim to ensure it is correct before it is submitted to our system via CNPweb. Inaccurate meal counts resulting in an overclaim will result in disallowance of meals and if severe, or repeated overtime will likely result in the sponsor being declared seriously deficient and if uncorrected could jeopardize program participation.
Meal service must be non-discriminatory and children should be served on a first come first serve basis. Special meals should not be provided to children unless there is an accompanying special dietary request based on a medical need. Meals must be consumed on site in order to be eligible for reimbursement, unless the State agency has been notified prior to meal service for a field trip or FNS has approved other off-site meal consumption. Failure to meet this “congregate feeding” requirement results in the disallowance of meals and may lead to a determination of serious deficiency of the sponsor’s operation of the Program. In extenuating circumstances, sponsors may allow meals to be consumed off-site as long as the meals consumed off-site are not claimed for reimbursement. Parents are not allowed to each off of the children’s plates even if the child has indicated they are finished with the meal. Sites may provide adult meals at a reasonable price that covers the cost of producing the meal, but may not claim adult meals for reimbursement.
Parents may help children carry meals, but they should be present in the line with their children. When entering your sites into CNPweb you will want to have site meal service beginning and end times that give you plenty of time to conduct your meal services. Do not make times so restrictive that you cannot accommodate for late meal deliveries or long lines. With local health department approval sponsors may allow a child to take one fruit, vegetable, or grain item offsite to eat later without prior State agency approval. The fruit, vegetable, or grain item taken offsite must be from the child’s own meal or from a “share table” (learn more about share tables on page 67 the USDA Summer Admin Guide. Sponsors should only allow this at sites where there are enough staff to monitor this practice. This helps ensure no issues, such as food safety or Program integrity, arise. Site personnel must supervise all children on the site while they are eating meals. Site rules should be reasonably enforced and children or parents violating rules should be gently reminded of them if they wish to be allowed to participate. Site rules should be posted where they are in view of the participants and can be easily referred to by staff. We recommend placing these on the table.
Monthly claims for reimbursement are due to our office by the 4th working day of the month. To receive a deposit by the end of that month, claims must be submitted ontime. Claims must also be submitted no later than 60 days from the end of the month being claimed. Downward adjustments where you're claiming less meals on the revision than you clamied originally, can be made at any time.
If you have any questions or would like information on where to find additional training on any of the topics discussed in this section please contact our office.
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