Making the Puzzle Pieces Fit!

What is the Food Distribution Program/USDA Foods (Commodities)? It’s a program administered by the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE). IDOE is also known as a School Distributing Agency (SDA) or simply, “The State”. Schools and institutions, also known as recipient agencies (RAs) or School Food Authorities (SFAs), receive nutritious food made available through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This program supports farmers and provides nutritious food to school children. Products are produced and packaged in the United States *Buy American!!. Approximately 78% of the Indiana NSLP sponsors are on the FDP.

What is the Annual Pre-Order “Survey”? The annual Pre-Order “Survey” is mandatory in order to receive USDA Foods (commodities). This is when and where an RA spends their entitlement and makes food choices for the next school year based on school menus Food prices are based on the USDA November Pricing File aka the November 15th file. An RA must have access to the green puzzle piece in CNPweb in order to make commodity food choices. If you cannot access the green puzzle piece and you meet the FDP criteria, contact the FDP specialist. The Pre-Order “Survey” typically opens in late January and closes in mid-March. It depends on guidance from the USDA. The USDA has a full list of commodities, however, only the items listed on our survey are the items available to Indiana RAs. The Pre-Order Survey consists of both end products and raw products and can only be done during the survey period.

Pre-Order Survey 1. Schools must complete the survey in CNPweb prior to the upcoming school year to divert product to the processor. 2. The survey is completed between late January and mid-March. 3. RAs must enter the total number of pounds to divert to an approved processor. 4. Agencies may spend any portion of their entitlement for diverting USDA Foods. Training tools for completing the pre-order survey can be found on our website at https://www.doe.in.gov/nutrition/food-distribution-program. The Pre-Order survey gives schools the opportunity to send bulk USDA Foods items to approved processors to make further processed products. Schools complete the survey in the CNPweb prior to the upcoming school year. For example, this January – March schools will place their orders for the next school year. For each bulk item available for processing, RAs enter the total number of pounds to divert to selected processors. USDA Foods bulk product or pounds ordered via the survey are sent directly to the processor from USDA and the end products are delivered by the distributor directly to the ordering agency. Agencies may spend any portion of their entitlement for diverting USDA Foods to any approved processor. Training tools for completing the pre-order survey can be found on our website

Warehouses There are 4 warehouses that we contract with in the state of Indiana to make USDA Foods deliveries throughout the state. Stanz Dilgard’s McFarling Wabash A minimum of 10 cases must be ordered to avoid a $15 drop fee. They make deliveries between September to June in any given school year. It is the RA’s responsibility to report school delays, closures, breaks, etc. Warehouses sometimes make deliveries at inopportune times (i.e. lunch, recess, etc.) School staff must be available to verify, receive and sign for deliveries.

How to make your commodities work!

Why Should My School Participate? Institutions on the National School Lunch Program and some Summer Food Service Program sponsors can receive food made available from the USDA. Also, known as USDA Foods. The program is supplemental and accounts for a up to 20% of the school’s lunch budget. The program provides commodities valued at approximately $40 million+ dollars in both end and raw products. RAs currently pay an administrative fee of $2.95 per case for brown box items NOTE: **Recipient Agencies still need to purchase food commercially.**

What Drives Your Commodity Choices? Your menu is the most important thing that drives what food items you order? Use your menu to decide what to order, not the other way around. The physical inventory currently at your site(s), at the warehouse (which is listed under inventory in CNPweb and product sent to the processors. The pre-order survey from the current and/or previous school year.

Where to start?? Hmmmmmm…….. Deadline!!

How to start the survey

Entitlement Dollars 1. Entitlement Allocated is the total amount of entitlement that can be spent. 2. Entitlement Used is the amount that has already been spent. 3. Entitlement Balance is the amount available to spend without the 2%. 4. Remaining Entitlement Available is the box that tells you the amount of entitlement you have left to spend to get you to 102%. This amount needs to be spent as close to $0 (zero) dollars as possible. Let’s talk a little about entitlement on the Survey Entry screen of the pre-order survey. Entitlement Allocated is the total amount of entitlement that can be spent. Entitlement Used is the amount that has already been spent. The Entitlement Balance is the amount available to spend without the 2% cushion. Remaining Entitlement Available is the box that tells you the amount of entitlement you have left to spend to get you to 102%. This amount needs to be spent as close to $0 (zero) dollars as possible. To be clear, RAs are encouraged spend their PAL or entitlement dollars up to 102%. We want you to spend that amount to fully utilize your entitlement. Remember, if you divert to a processor that amount will be deducted from your entitlement. Diversion to the DoD Fresh Program will be pre-allocated or deducted before the survey opens.

Select Surveys Tab

Select View

The “View” Tab shows your entitlement and pounds of various commodities available to you. The ones you can click on can be expanded to see which processor you send items to.

State processors, that have been procured by the USDA, appear in your selections area. This does not necessarily mean you need to use each processor. Choose those that work with your current distributor, you have done cuttings for and or sampled and have a proven success record on your menu.

When you are ready to make requests, choose the edit screen When you are ready to make requests, choose the edit screen. It will look like this. You can select “End” or “Raw” products. End is unprocessed, Raw is processed. End products is the area used for brown box items and raw products will be designated pounds to the processors available. Remember-you will have to justify how you select your processors for a procurement review. Be sure to keep track of cuttings and historical data to support your selections.

End Products vs. Raw Products “Brown Box” or “Cases” Raw Products= “Bulk Items” or “Pounds” *Diverted to a processor*

Two USDA Foods Categories End Products – AKA “Brown Box” or “Direct Delivery” -These orders are placed in the CNPweb (We’ll discuss this in more detail later) -Delivered by truck from the RAs Assigned Warehouse (We’ll discuss the warehouses later) Raw Products – AKA “Bulk Products or Processed End Products -These products are diverted to a processor to be made into a ready to eat product. -Orders are placed directly with the distributor. -Deliveries are made by truck from the distributor. -Monitor these balances monthly in Processorlink and K12 Foodservice. These are companies that manage your commodity programs for diverted bulk products.

The “End” Product Edit Screen

The “Raw” Product Edit Screen

Things to remember: 1. The Calc button calculates and recalculates the Remaining Entitlement Available in the white box. Click this button after entering product choices. 2. The Cancel button just cancels the current action and takes you back to the previous screen. 3. The submit button submits the new information entered. 4. There will be no approval or confirmation when the survey is complete. 5. The survey will be available to make edits until the respective close date. 6. If you see a message like “You do not currently have a NSLP information sheet…”. Ignore it. It will not affect you completing the survey. A few things to remember: click the calculate button regularly and often to know your remaining entitlement amount after entering food choices. Pressing the cancel button just cancels the action and takes you back to the previous screen. The submit button submits any new information you have entered. Unfortunately, there is no approval or confirmation that your survey is complete. Just be sure that you have spent your entitlement as close to 102% as possible or in essence spent the balance down to zero. If you see that your entitlement has already been spent before you make any choices, that means that the survey from the previous year rolled over. You may keep the choices that rolled over or you can make any changes you wish. Although the survey rolled over, please be sure to at least click the edit link on the survey entry screen to be sure the survey choices remain. You can make edits on the survey up until the close date. Once you have clicked the edit link on the Surveys tab, the next time you go into your account you should also see a “View” link as well.

Survey Demonstration and or Video from IDOE

What happens after the Pre-Order “Survey”? You will need to familiarize and utilize the tabs in CNPweb. The IDOE handles the financial portion and calculates the amount of trucks needed for the next school.

Next: What is the Processorlink and K12 Foodservice’s role and how do we use it to track our commodities?

Both offer customer support to RAs. www.k12foodservice.com/ https://www.processorlink.com/ Offers Recipient Agencies an easy & effective way to manage their commodity program for diverted bulk USDA Foods products. These companies manage processor commodity balances and provide reports for RAs. Contact them to see if there is an account set up or to find out balances. There is access to reports, account management, commodity balances, and more for the processors they contract. Both offer customer support to RAs. Need to set up an account with them, if one is not already set up for your institution. Need to monitor the balances with them monthly. The link to both companies is on our webpage.

FDP Website Overview Where You Go For Help! Take a quick look at the website.

FDP Website Page http://www. doe. in This is the Food Distribution Program webpage. It should not be confused with CNPweb. You should go here for resources, information and tutorials. The link to this page is listed on this slide.

Questions???

IDOE Contact Information Cheryl Moore, Food Distribution Specialist (Brown Box) – cmoore@doe.in.gov , 317-234-2516 (Brown Box Items, Pre-order Survey, DoD Fresh Program, Allocations, and Bonus) Linda Smith, Food Distribution Specialist (Raw/Bulk Products and Processor Questions) – lrsmith@doe.in.gov , 317-232-0859 John Todd, Food Distribution Coordinator – jtodd@doe.in.gov , 317-232-0865