Making the Most of Child Nutrition Funding:
A Guide for After School Education and Safety Grantees

Model Programs

• Santa Monica School District
• Montebello School District
• Step by Step: Serving Suppers and Snacks through CACFP

• Student population totals 35,000 students.
• Approximately 90 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price school meals.
• The district is an urban district.

• Approximately 8,000 children receive a snack each day.
• Twenty after school programs participate, and all of them are located on school grounds.
• All of the programs are located in low-income areas.

• Some of the children's favorite menu items include strawberries, broccoli, cheese, and tuna salad with crackers.
• The school district runs a unique Harvest of the Month program that highlights a different fruit or vegetable each month and serves it once a week during the month.
• Teachers also feature the food item in a cooking demonstration in their classroom, so the children have several opportunities to taste it and learn about it.
• The school tries to minimize waste by selecting food that not only is healthy, but also is food the children will want to eat.

• The after school program staff brings the children to the cafeteria. The food service department staff prepares and serves the snacks to the students and also keeps track of the meal counts.

• For the 200607 school year, the school spent approximately 58 cents per snack on food and seven cents per snack for labor costs.
• The school has never lost money on the after school snack program.

• Once a month, the food service staff does cooking demonstrations for the children, such as making fruit smoothies that include spinach. The children enjoy the "cooking shows." It gives them an opportunity to learn more about the food they are eating and how to prepare easy snacks.

• The school food service director hears great feedback about the after school snack program, particularly about the Harvest of the Month program.
• Through the after school program, children are eating more fresh fruits and vegetables and they go home and talk to their parents about the new items they have tried at school.

• Approximately 1,500 students receive breakfast and lunch each day during the summer.
• There are eight summer food sites, and all of them are located at schools.
• All of the sites are located in low-income areas. Most of the students who attend the meal program are attending summer school, but some of them are from the community.

• The meals served through the Summer Food Service Program are very similar to the meals served during the school year.
• Most of the meals are served hot, and some of the children's favorite lunch entrees include ravioli and beans and cheese burrito. For breakfast, breakfast bagels and waffle sticks are very popular.
• All of the schools in the district have kitchens, and most of the food is prepared from scratch.

• Children go to the school cafeteria to eat breakfast before their summer school classes start and come back after their classes end to eat lunch before they go home.
• Each summer food site has two food service staff members working at it.

• The food costs for summer lunches are approximately $1.08 per meal, and the rest of the reimbursement covers labor costs.
• The school district is able to operate the Summer Food Service Program each year without losing money.

• One of the challenges to running the program is letting families know that the meals program is open to all students, regardless of whether they are enrolled in summer school.
• The school markets the program to students and parents in the spring so they know the children can receive meals during the summer months and so summer school students know they should visit the cafeteria before and after school to eat breakfast and lunch.

• The school uses a special touch-screen monitor to take meal counts. The computer screen shows pictures of the students by class, and the food service staff member just touches the picture of the child going through the line. The program is very user-friendly and helps get the children through the line faster.

• The community really appreciates the fact that the summer food program is open to all children in the area.
• The school district is located in a very low-income area; many of the students come from families with limited resources, are in foster care, or live in shelters. The children look forward to eating breakfast and lunch at the school, and their families appreciate the help in stretching their food budget.
• The school emphasizes cooking from scratch and tries to limit the amount of processed food on the menu. This has been very positively received by the students. In fact, the food service department has received letters from children about how much they like the school food and the staff.

• The student population totals 33,500.
• Approximately 76 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price school meals.
• The district is a suburban district.

• Approximately 1,300 children receive a snack each day.
• Fifteen after school programs participate, and all of them are located on school grounds.
• All of the after school programs are located in low-income areas.

• All snacks meet the nutrition guidelines for the after school snack program.
• Some of the children's favorite snacks include yogurt, string cheese, trail mix, and sliced apples with peanut butter.
• The food service department tries to serve seasonal fresh fruit whenever possible, such as bananas and oranges, and it recently started serving packaged sliced apples because they are more kid-friendly than whole apples.
• The food service department emphasizes variety in the menu cycle, because the children get tired of eating the same snack. Staff wants to make sure that the children are excited about what they are eating and have a chance to try new menu items.

• The cafeteria staff prepares the snacks and leaves them in a designated area so they can be picked up by the after school program staff.
• The after school program staff are responsible for serving the snack, cleaning up, and keeping accurate meal counts and attendance rosters.
• The food service department staff works with the after school program employees to ensure that all employees know how to fill out the paperwork properly.

• Because the food service department is very focused on providing quality snacks, including fresh fruits and vegetables, it consistently uses its entire reimbursement to cover the cost of the snacks.
• To make sure the program is financially viable, the food service department balances high-cost menu items such as yogurt and fresh fruit with lower-cost menu items such as milk and graham crackers throughout the menu cycle to make sure it is able to operate the program without losing money.
• The food service department believes the key to breaking even is making sure that it is preparing enough snacks so it has an adequate economy of scale. The easiest after school snack programs to run are the ones that serve the most children.

• Food safety is always a big concern. The food service department works with after school program staff to make sure they understand how to store and serve perishable food items and are following all food safety guidelines.
• The food service director explains the importance of accurate paperwork to the after school program staff. This is to make sure that all of the paperwork is filled out properly and turned in on time so the overall National School Lunch Program claims do not get slowed down. The director will follow up with them via e-mail if there are any problems.
• The school food service department also has found it helpful to get buy-in from top-level staff, such as the heads of the after school programs and principals, so everyone understands the importance of timely and accurate paperwork, which enables snack programs to operate efficiently.

• All of the school district's after school programs use the after school snack program because they realize the importance of providing food to children after school.
• The after school program staff believes it is easier to get children to meaningfully engage in the after school enrichment activities if a snack is provided.
• Staff also point out that it is comforting for the children to get the snacks. It helps curb their hunger until dinner, and it is a good transition to their after school activities.

• Approximately 2,250 children receive lunch each day during the summer.
• Fifteen sites participate in the Summer Food Service Program.
• Twelve of the programs are located at schools, and three of them are run by the city's parks and recreation department.

• The lunches served during the summer are similar to the meals prepared during the traditional school year, though more of them are cold meals that are easier to prepare and serve. Moreover, cold meals often seem more attractive to students when the weather is so warm.
• Frequent menu items include cold sandwiches, hamburgers, burritos, and pizza..
• All the meals include fruits or vegetables, and the food service department tries to serve whole fresh fruit when possible because it is healthier than canned fruit and easier for the staff to serve.

• The school primarily operates the Summer Food Service Program for students who are participating in their summer school program, but the program is advertised to the community and all students in the area are welcome to attend.
• Food service staff prepares the meals, serves them, keeps track of the meal counts, and cleans up after the meal service.
• If the sites have kitchens, the meals are prepared on site.
• The only meals that are transported from another kitchen are those for the parks and recreation programs because they do not have kitchen facilities.
• Typically, if the site serves fewer than 70 children, only one food service staff member is employed at the site. If the site has more than 70 children on a daily basis, two food service employees are hired.

• The school uses all the reimbursement dollars to cover the cost of food and labor and is able to break even with the program each year.
• The school sites prepare enough meals for the amount of children they expect, and the school district sends a set number of meals to the parks and recreation department.
• The Summer Food Service Program enables the school district to employ many food service employees during the summer months.

• One problem the district faces each year is convincing site administrators to run open sites so students from the community can participate. Often, they are reluctant to open up sites to children outside their program.
• To overcome this challenge, the food service department highlights the benefits the Summer Food Service Program brings to the students, their families, and the entire community.

1. Will contacts the school district's food service director and asks her whether the school district would be willing to sponsor the supper program for his boys & girls club.
2. The director has good news for Will. The school district is already using CACFP to serve meals and snacks to the local Head Start programs during the day, so it does not have to apply to a completely new nutrition program in order to provide the suppers to the after school program.
3. The school food service director points out that because Will's program operates for several hours in the evening, he can serve a snack to the children immediately after school and a supper toward the end of the program. This would provide the children with more healthy food.
4. The state checks its records. If Will's club is located in a low-income area—where more than 50 percent of the children are certified for free or reduced-price meals—it would be eligible to receive the highest reimbursement for snacks. The after school program is located in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and 59 percent of the students in the school district are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals. Will's club qualifies for the higher reimbursement. The school has the option of providing snacks through the National School Lunch Program or CACFP (through the Snack program).
5. For the suppers, the school will be reimbursed based on the children's eligibility for free or reduced-price school meals. The school already documents the childrens household income to determine eligibility for the school lunch program.
6. The school food service director meets with Will to discuss how the program operates, including the menus, the required paperwork, how the snacks will be transported to his program, and proper food safety practices.
7. Will meets with his staff and explains that every day the school will drop off suppers at the site. It will be their responsibility to serve the meals, take the meal counts, keep an accurate attendance roster, and clean up after the meal service.
8. Will also sets up a time with his staff to train them on how to properly store and serve the meals when they arrive so everyone understands how to follow the food safety guidelines.
9. The school food service department provides bagged meals and snacks, which it delivers to the club. Transportation costs are kept down by making the club a stop on the school's daily delivery route.
10. Will's after school program staff is responsible for getting the snacks and suppers out of the refrigerator each day, serving the snacks and meals, and keeping track of attendance and which children eat each day. Will turns that information into the school food service director, who submits it to the California Department of Education each month.
11. Will's program is exempt from licensing, but it has to meet the California health and safety standards. The requirements are minimal because the food is not being prepared on site.