A Meeting of the Summer Food Service Program Exploratory Task Force

The Summer Food Service Program Exploratory Task Force met on February 19-20, 2020 at the Institute of Child Nutrition.

Purpose:
To provide recommendations to the ICN on the development of a series of educational resources (e.g., fact sheets, tip sheets, resource guides, webinars, videos, and/or posters) that further educate Summer Food Service Programs on best practices that improve their program implementation.

Background:
The SFSP ensures that low-income children continue to receive nutritious meals when school is not in session.  SFSPs rely on innovation and collaboration to reach children who need good nutrition when school is out of session, including support in meal preparation and service.

There have been several innovative SFSP resources developed by FNS and ICN to support SFSP operators. While these resources/trainings have been helpful and effective for SFSP operators, there are still training, educational resource, and technical assistance gaps identified by FNS on topics such as SFSP meal pattern requirements, menu planning, meal service, food safety, and offer versus serve requirements.  FNS and ICN propose to expand ICN’s SFSP resource offerings by developing additional resources to address these areas in need of educational resources, training and support.

Project Description:
The goal of the SFSP resource development project is to further support SFPS operators by developing a series of resources.  Topics for these resources may include:

• Meal Pattern Requirements
• Planning Healthy Summer Meals
• Quality Meal Service
• Food Safety