Pre-Review Questionnaire

A time will be set up to answer these questions with your field consultant. They may be completed via phone call or office visit.

Applications and Benefit Issuance

100. Are you on corporation-wide CEP or Provision 2 or 3? (If yes, please skip to meal counting section, additional questions may be asked by your field consultant.)

101. Who approves applications?

102. Do you approve applications electronically?

104. If yes:

  • How are records maintained and for how long?
  • Describe the backup to the electronic approval system.
  • List the method used to obtain a household signature.

103. At the beginning of the school year, if a student has not submitted a current application, how do you assign that student school lunch benefits?

105. Once an application is received, how long does it take to approve the application?

106. Who has access to the household applications?

107. When and how are households notified of students’ eligibility?

108. Who is the hearing official for the appeal of approval?

109. Who is responsible for updating eligibility information when a new direct certification list is run?

110. Do you use the Direct Certification letter provided by the state agency?

111. What is the process for extending DC eligibility to other students in the household?

112. Does your Benefit Issuance system identify how eligibility was determined? (application, DC, etc)
Benefit Issuance System could be your POS system, Student Database, or other system where applications are approved and list of eligibility is kept.

113. Who has access to the benefit issuance system? Benefit Issuance System could be your POS system, Student Database, or other system where applications are approved and list of eligibility is kept.

114. How are benefits issued and distributed to students? (POS system, roster,etc)

115. How are students assigned to Free or Reduced meals once an application or DC list confirms their eligibility?

116. How is the benefit appointed in the POS system?

117. How are the POS and Benefit Issuance documents updated?

118. How often is your POS system updated?

119. Does your benefit issuance system indicate the date an eligibility status was changed?

120. How and when are changes made to the POS and Benefit Issuance document for the following?

  • New Students
  • Transfer Students
  • Withdrawn Students
  • 30 day carry-over students

121. Is there a back-up system in case the POS system is down? How often is the back-up system updated?

Verification

201. Who conducts verification?

202. Who conducts the initial confirmation of the applications pulled for verification?

203. Describe your verification process.

204. Are error prone applications pulled via electronic system? If yes, what software do you use?

Meal Counting and Claiming

300. Do you use an electronic POS system, manual system or both?

301. How does your POS system identify a student’s eligibility? (include all types of counting i.e. coded in electronic system, check off list for breakfast in the classroom, rosters at alternative school, etc.)

302. Is there a backup to your counting and claiming system for all listed above?

303. How often are cashiers (including substitutes) trained on meal claiming requirements?

304. At the end of service, how do you obtain the daily meal count from each point of service?

305. What is your procedure for counting the following:

  • Offer vs Serve
  • Incomplete Meals
  • Second Meals
  • Visiting Student Meals
  • Adult/non-student meals
  • Student Worker Meals
  • A la Carte Items
  • Field Trips
  • Lost, stolen, forgotten or destroyed tickets, tokens, IDs or PINS
  • Charged or Pre-paid meals?
  • Students without funds to pay for meals (charging policy)
  • New students without an approved eligibility benefit?

306. What is your edit check procedure?

307. For electronic systems: Are meals automatically consolidated? (ie if you have 3 registers, do you print one report or 3?) If yes, does the system contain edit checks and internal controls? If edits and internal controls are not part of the system when and how are edit checks completed?

308. Do you have alternate points of service? (breakfast carts, breakfast in the class rooms, grab and go lunch kiosk)

309. How do you prevent duplicate meals from being served and claimed for reimbursement?

310. At site level, how are meal counts turned in for reimbursement?

311. Do you consolidate claims for reimbursement? Please describe the process

Meal Pattern (Risk Assessment Tool Completed by SA)

The following questions must be answered for each school under review (as assigned by your field consultant). An additional set of questions will be asked once the site with the highest risk score is determined by your field consultant.

  1. What other CN programs does the site operate? (check all that apply)
  • School Breakfast Program
  • Seamless Summer Option
  • After School Snack Program
  • Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program
  • Special Milk Program
  1. What Age/Grade Grouping do you menu plan for this site? (i.e. K-8, 6-8 AND 9-12, K-5)
  2. Did you have any Performance Standard 1 (applications, verification, meal counting) or Performance Standard 2 (meal pattern) findings on your last review?
  3. How many points of service (cash registers or “check out” locations) at this site?
  4. Do students serve themselves any of the meal components?
  5. Does the site utilize cycle menus?
  6. Are there alternative points of service?
  7. Is this school a HealthierUS Challenge award recipient as of January 1, 2010?
  8. Does the site have a new kitchen manager, cook or site manager?

In addition to these questions, you will be required to submit menu and production records for each school under review for the month of review (both to be assigned by your field consultant)

  • Crediting information will be required for one week of menus during the month of review for all grade groupings. The week will be assigned by your field consultant.
  • Nutrient information (calories, sat fat, sodium, etc) is not immediately required, but should be kept on file and may be needed during the on-site portion of the review.

General Program

Civil Rights

800. What non-discrimination statement is used on program materials? (Please read exact language)

802. Do you have any Limited English Proficient (LEP) households? What services do you provide to LEP households?

803. What is your procedure for handling civil rights complaints?

804. Have you received any civil rights complaints last year or the current year?

805. Do you have students with special dietary needs? How are those needs accommodated?

806. What is the date of your last civil rights training session?

807. When and how is Racial/Ethnic data collected? (You school probably does this upon enrollment, but check with your principal or administrators to make sure.)

Outreach

1600. How did you notify households of the School Breakfast Program both before school started and throughout the school year?

1601. How did you notify households of the availability of meals throughout the summer through SFSP?

Monitoring

How do you ensure compliance at the site (school) level? How and when is monitoring conducted?

Smart Snacks

1100. What is your food sale policy? Please list all types of food sales in the schools.

1101.How do you determine smart snack compliance for non-packaged or recipe items? (non-commercial items)

1102.How do you account for accompaniments (condiments) when determining smart snack compliance for items sold a la carte?

1103. Who is responsible for tracking Smart Snack compliance? (including items sold in the cafeteria, in school stores, tracking fund raisers, vending machines, etc.)

Wellness Policy

1000. Please provide a copy of your school wellness policy.

1001. How is the public notified about the school wellness policy?

1002.When and how does the review and update of the Wellness Policy occur?

1003.Who is involved in the review and update of the wellness policy?

1004.How are potential stakeholders made aware of the ability to participate in the development, review, update, and implementation of the wellness policy?

1005. Please provide a copy of the wellness policy and most recent assessment and implementation report of the wellness policy

1006.How is the public notified of the results of the most recent assessment of the wellness policy?

Documentation of compliance with the above answers is required this could include minutes from school board meetings or copies of newsletters addressing the wellness policy, a copy of the rubric used to assess the wellness policy and other documents to show compliance.

Professional Standards

1200. What is the student enrollment for your corporation?

1201. How many of the following do you have?

  • Director
  • Manager
  • Full-time nutrition staff
  • Part-time nutrition staff
  • Staff hired after January 1 of the school-year being reviewed
  • Non-school nutrition staff that have responsibilities that include duties related to the program (application approval, claim filing, verification conducted outside of the food service office)

1202. Was a new director hired after July 1, 2015? If yes, please provide proof that hiring standards were met.

1203.If yes, did the new director complete food safety training within 30 days of being hired? If no, was previous food safety certification obtained in the last 5 years? What is the date of the existing food safety certification?

1204. Has the director met the training requirement for the year? (12 hours annually) If no, is this employee expected to meet the training requirement? What training sessions are planned to meet the requirement?

1205. Have all managers met the training requirement? (10 hours annually) If no, is this employee expected to meet the training requirement? What training sessions are planned to meet the requirement?

1206. Have all full-time nutrition staff met the training requirement? (6 hours for all 20+ hour weekly employees) If no, is this employee expected to meet the training requirement? What training sessions are planned to meet the requirement?

1207.

1208. Are you tracking hours annually?

1209. Do you have any employees hired after January 1 of the current school year? Are these employees expected to meet the training requirement?

1210. Have employees outside the school nutrition program with NSLP responsibilities received the necessary training?

1211. Has all part time staff met the training requirement? (4 hours annually for those with fewer than 20 hours weekly) If no, is this employee expected to meet the training requirement? What training sessions are planned to meet the requirement?

Please provide a copy of training documentation that all staff has received up to the point of the review. Please also provide a copy of planned training sessions to take place the remainder of the school year.