The purpose of this memo is to provide United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidance on the provision required in Section 112 of The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Section 112 establishes requirements for all school districts/school food authorities (SFAs) participating in the National School Lunch Program to conduct outreach to student households on the local availability of FREE Seamless Summer Meal Service funded by the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) and FREE Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) meals funded by the Arkansas Department of Human Services (AR DHS) BEFORE the end of the school year.
· School Food Authorities (SFAs) must cooperate with other school districts or SFSP non-profit service institutions to inform families of the availability and location of free meals for students when the regular school year ends and
· SFAs must ensure outreach activities are in place for each upcoming summer.
To help school districts meet the above new requirements, the ADE Child Nutrition Unit and AR DHS Special Nutrition Unit have combined the summer feeding site information from both funding sources for a one stop shop for locations where students can access FREE summer meals this year.
A Google Map indicating approved Department of Human Services (DHS) and Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) Child Nutrition Unit (CNU) sites, physical address locations, times of meal service (Breakfast, Lunch, Afterschool Snacks, and AR DHS Supper) and local site contact information is on this website link:
https://dhs.arkansas.gov/DCCECE/SNP/WelcomeSNPM.aspx
Schools may post information on the school website, send fliers home listing the website link or the actual locations of summer meals in the county, send out emails to parents, and/or utilize a School Notification System such as “Edline” to communicate these locations to parents.
Schools can also request free outreach materials from the No Kid Hungry Campaign link listed below in item number 4.
School district child nutrition directors must keep documentation of the Summer Meals Outreach efforts on file for five years for reviewing during compliance/monitoring visits.
Examples of outreach information, websites and materials can be accessed at the following:
1. Summer Meals 2012 Commissioner’s Memo FIN-12-083
http://cnn.k12.ar.us/Files/ade_memos/March2012/FIN-12-083.pdf
2. United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service – How to do Outreach. Provides outreach information and materials.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/summer/Outreach.htm
3. Summer Food Service Program Outreach Toolkit is available to
Sponsors and Feeding sites. It includes fliers, letters to parents, and other
materials that help schools raise awareness of the summer feeding programs
among students and families. The toolkit is available at
http://www.summerfood.usda.gov/library/toolkit.pdf.
4. Share Our Strength and the Arkansas No Kid Hungry Kid Campaign
have developed strategies to improve access and increase awareness of the
availability of summer meals to children. Outreach materials are available by
request at http://arhungeralliance.org/no_kid_hungry_campaign.htm.
After May 1st parents may call 1-888-4KI-D4AR ext. 4AR (1-888-454-3427 ext. 427) for summer meals locations.
5. Google Map indicating approved Department of Human Services (DHS) and Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) Child Nutrition Unit (CNU) sites, locations, times of service and contact information
https://dhs.arkansas.gov/DCCECE/SNP/WelcomeSNPM.aspx
For questions, please contact your area specialist, Patricia Winders, or Donna Ratliff at (501) 324-9502.