Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) Meal Pattern Overview

1. Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)Meal Pattern Overview

2. Meals • Environment • Number & Types • Components • Patterns • Requirements

3. Meal Pattern • Allows sponsors to serve meals that meet a child's nutritional needs • Meal pattern is consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans • Meals are appetizing to children

4. Eating Habits Begin Early • The SFSP setting offers an opportunity to positively impact children’s lives • Healthy habits are learned at a young age that last a lifetime • Healthy meals and snacks provide energy for active children Try to provide nutrition and physical education during meals and snacks, to encourage a lifestyle of healthy eating and physical activity

5. The Eating Environment • Making Mealtime a Happy Time • The Physical Environment • A Healthy Atmosphere • Nutrition Education • Promote Nutrition Education Activities

6. Number & Types • For Open and Enrolled Sites: • Up to 2 Meals/day: e.g. breakfast & lunch, lunch & snack, 2 snacks, breakfast & supper, snack & supper, etc. • Not Allowed: lunch & supper • For Camps and Migrant Sites: • Up to 3 Meals/day: any combination of meals & snacks

7. Serving Meals • Family-style requires that all components must be offered so that a child could take a full portion of each. Camp counselors must ensure that each child has a reimbursable meal. • Cafeteria style the server ensures that a complete meal is received by the child in the correct portion size

8. Serving Meals • Meals delivered to your site may be unitized: • all meal components (except milk or juice) are packaged, delivered, and served as a unit. Beverages may be packaged and provided separately, but must be offered with the meal • All sites may use offer versus serve (OVS) meal service. • The decision to use unitized or OVS will depend on the ease of delivery and supervision

9. Meal Pattern • Breakfast • Lunch/Supper • Snack

10. Components • Milk • Vegetables and/or Fruits • Grains and Breads • Meats/Meat Alternates

11. Milk Component • Milk must be 8 ounces fluid milk • Unflavored low fat, skim and flavored skim milk are recommended • Can be lactose free or reduced lactose low fat or skim milk • Can be shelf stable

12. Fruit and Vegetable Component • Use a different combination of two or more servings of fruits and/or vegetables for lunch • Include various forms such as raw or cooked, fresh, frozen, canned in juices or light syrup, or dried

13. Fruits and Vegetables • Do not serve two forms of the same fruit or vegetable in the same meal. • Example: An orange and orange juice, or an apple and applesauce are combinations that should not be used Serve a variety of vegetables and fruits to ensure a nutritionally well–balanced meal.

14. Guidelines to Remember • Juice: • Use full-strength fruit or vegetable juice • Juice should not be served at lunch more than 50% of the time • Juice may not be served as part of the snack when milk is the only other component 100%

15. Fruits and Vegetables • Fruit-flavored drinks, ades, or punches contain less than 50% strength juice. • These types of beverages may be served as an “other food” but are not credited • Juice or syrup from canned fruit does not count as fruit juice

16. Grains Component • Breads, rolls, biscuits, bagels, muffins • Crackers, tortillas • Cereal grains (cooked) such as rice, bulgur, oatmeal, corn grits, wheat, or couscous • Ready-to-eat Breakfast Cereals • Macaroni and noddle products • Sweet food products such as toaster pastries, coffee cake, doughnuts, sweet rolls, cookies, cakes, or formulated grain-fruit products with restrictions • Read labels on commercial products to guide you

17. Grains and Breads • Whole-grain or enriched breads • Made from whole-grain or enriched flour or meal • AND • Cereal must be whole-grain, enriched, or fortified • Bran and germ are credited the same as whole grain or enriched flour and/or meal. • Read labels on commercial products to guide you

18. Pasta and Macaroni • Use macaroni or noodle products (cooked) made with enriched or whole-grain flour. • Program regulations allow enriched macaroni products that have been fortified with protein to be counted to meet either a grain/bread or meat/meat alternate requirement but not as both in the same meal. • Use macaroni or noodle products (cooked) made with enriched or whole-grain flour • Enriched macaroni products that have been fortified with protein can be counted to meet either a grain/bread or meat/meat alternate requirement BUT not as both

19. Guidelines to Remember • Grains: • Read the labels on commercial products and flour products that you are using in the SFSP. Whole grain products and flour, will list whole as the first ingredient (example whole wheat flour). Enriched flour or meal is refined grains that have been enriched (example enriched wheat flour)

20. Guidelines to Remember • Meat/Meat Alternates: • A serving consists of the edible portion of cooked lean meat or poultry or fish AND • Yogurt may be plain or flavored, unsweetened or sweetened

21. Guidelines to Remember • Nuts and Seeds: • May meet only one-half of the total meat/meat alternate serving for lunch or supper • And must be combined with another meat/meat alternate to fulfill the lunch or supper requirement

22. Points to Remember When planning menus that meet meal pattern requirements and the Dietary Guidelines use a variety of these components. • Meat and Meat Alternates • Fruits and Vegetables • Grains and Breads

23. Meat and Meat Alternates • Meat, Fish, Poultry • Dried Beans and Legumes • Remember: do not count for vegetable and meat alternate in the same meal. • Cheese

24. Meat and Meat Alternates • Peanut butter or other Nut butters • Eggs • Yogurt, commercially prepared

25. Condiments/Other Foods • Small amounts (less than 1/8 cup) of onions, pickles, relish, catsup, jams or jellies, or other condiments may be added for flavor or garnish as “other foods” • These do not • These do not count toward fruit/vegetable requirement. • fruit/ vegetable requirement.

26. Grains and Breads • Piecrust used as part of the main dish (i.e., for meat turnovers or meat pies) is allowed as a bread item.

27. Grains and Breads • Non-sweet snack products such as hard pretzels, hard bread sticks, crackers and tortillas made from enriched or whole-grain meal or flour can be used to meet the grain/bread requirement when made from whole-grain or enriched meal or flour • Sweet foods such as toaster pastries, coffee cake, doughnuts, wheat rolls, cookies, or cakes can be used to meet the bread at breakfast

28. Patterns • Breakfast: • Must contain 3components. Milk must be one of the components. • Lunch and Supper: • Must contain 5 items from the 4components • Includes 2 servings from fruit and/or vegetable component

29. Patterns • Snack: • Must contain any different 2components. • Fruit juice and milk can not be served in the same snack.

30. Snack • Grain-based sweet snack foods should not be served as part of a snack more than twice a week X2

31. Offer Versus Serve (OVS) • SFSP sponsors have the option of utilizing offer versus serve which: • permits a child to refuse one or more items that the child does not intend to eat • OVS helps to reduce plate waste by giving children greater flexibility to select only the foods they intend to eat • It allows the child to decline one or two meal items at lunch or supper or one item at breakfast if the child does not intend to eat the particular offered meal item • OVS may not be used for snacks .

32. OVS • Sponsors must offer a complete meal to SFSP participants • All required food items/components must be offered and children must not be urged to decline components.

33. OVS • To meet program requirements for lunch or supper under the SFSP meal pattern, the child must be offered: • Five food items from the four food components in at least the minimum serving size for the appropriate age group • Children must select three or four of the five food items offered • At breakfast, a minimum of three required food items in specific quantities must be offered • Students must select two of the three required food items offered to meet OVS

34. If SFA’s would like more specific and detailed information on Offer Versus Serve and menu planning, you can download information from http://teamnutrition.usda.gov/Resources/offer_v_serve.html.

35. http://www.maine.gov/education/sfs/ In accordance with Federal Law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Adjudication, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call toll-free (866) 632-9992 (Voice). Individuals who are hearing impaired or have speech disabilities may contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339; or (800) 845-6136 (Spanish). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.