FY 2019 Team Nutrition Training Grants for Innovative State Training Programs

On Sept. 4, 2019 Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) awarded approximately $2.8 million in federal funding for the fiscal year (FY) 2019 Team Nutrition Training Grants for Innovative State Training Programs. These 3-year grants support state agencies in expanding the reach of existing state-developed training programs focused on improving school meal quality. Ultimately, these grants will also help identify innovative school meal training programs, so that other states may use them as a model or guide for implementing similar training programs. For more information, please contact TeamNutrition@USDA.gov.

Recipients of the FY 2019 Team Nutrition Training Grants for Innovative State Training Programs:

Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) plans to deliver their Culturally Relevant and Inspiring School Professionals (CRISP) 2.0 training. This project offers a flexible start-to-finish culinary track, with the potential to fully train staff and achieve competence and confidence to serve high- quality, diverse, and nutritious school meals. The training will be available in three sequential phases to allow for flexibility to meet the needs of each school and mitigate disruptions due to COVID-19. CRISP 2.0 will begin with video trainings, then lead into an opportunity to advance to in-person culinary trainings for schools that are ready and able to participate. Evaluation will be conducted throughout the project as well as at completion to determine the effectiveness of each phase of the program.

Montana

The Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) is expanding its piloted Montana Cook Fresh Institute to reach 20 underserved school food authorities (SFAs). Due to COVID-19, training formats included in-person, virtual, and hybrid models to meet local needs and regulations. Four of the 20 SFAs represent American Indian tribes and are located on or near Native American reservations. About 40 school nutrition directors and managers will take part in the culinary trainings that include a self-assessment and development of an action plan to improve school meal quality. Each school nutrition director/manager receives peer mentoring and technical assistance from trainers and chefs as they implement strategies to reach their meal quality goals.

Additionally, Montana OPI is providing regional culinary trainings and webinars for school nutrition staff. These supplemental trainings are focusing on procuring local foods and successful strategies to improve student and parent perceptions of school meal quality. Montana OPI will assess grant outcomes through culinary training evaluations, meal quality action plan implementation, a School Meal Quality Assessment Tool, and student focus groups. They will also continue to document, assess, and evaluate all COVID-19 related changes to grant activities.

Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania (PA) Department of Education (PDE) is expanding their piloted culinary training program and Project PA mentoring program to train 150 school food service directors. PDE has held two of their planned six culinary training sessions, where each school nutrition director will receive culinary training. Following the training, Project PA mentors are providing guidance, support, and recommendations to the school food service directors as they implement strategies to improve the quality of school meals and overcome issues related to COVID-19 and supply chain disruptions. Pennsylvania also plans to provide sub-grants to schools to extend culinary lessons to school nutrition staff. This plan is currently on hold due to COVID-19. Sub-grantees will conduct student taste-test activities using a recipe from the culinary training and/or incorporate a new cooking technique from the culinary training into preparation of school meals. Grant activities will be evaluated using a mixed-methods approach, including online surveys of school nutrition directors, and structured, in-depth interviews with sub-grantee school nutrition professionals and Project PA Mentors. Student surveys from a sample of sub-grantee schools will assess students’ perceptions of the changes in school meal quality. An assessment of menus in sub-grantee schools will examine changes in school meal offerings following the training and mentoring.

Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is expanding their Goal Oriented Achievement Learning Skills (GOALS) training certification program to reach school nutrition professionals in rural and underserved SFAs. Due to COVID-19, Wisconsin DPI’s in-person Quality Meal Improvement trainings were converted to a virtual format. As a follow-up to the training, participants will complete a meal quality self-assessment and develop an action plan to improve meal quality. Wisconsin DPI still plans to award sub-grants to support the implementation of strategies designed to improve meal quality. The grant’s evaluation plan includes staff training assessments, student satisfaction surveys, and assessments of school meal participation rates and production records.