Food & Nutrition [Volume 6, Number 1]

              I
New
Legislation
for Child
Nutrition
Programs
February 1976 • Volume 6 • Number 1
· "'Of'!Rn' Of_ THE
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MAR 5 1976
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New
Legislation
for Child
Nutrition
Programs
By Dianne D. jenkins
Meet John-Michael. He's 4. It's a
little hard to see him right now. Win­ter
has him hidden in his hooded red
snowsuit. John-Michael's Mom works
all day while he stays with "the lady
down the street" with five or six other
kids. There's food for lunch, but
sometimes there's not enough.
Beth has lived in her home since
she was 5. She spends most of her
day there and she's learned a lot of
things, although learning is more dif­ficult
for Beth than for most children.
Beth lives in a State-supported home
for mentally retarded children.
Money is tight, and meals aren't al­ways
what they should be.
On October 7, Congress passed
new child nutrition legislation that
will help get food assistance to chil­dren
like John-Michael and Beth as
well as to many others in very differ­ent
situations.
Specifically, the new law- P. L.
94-105- makes major changes in the
Department of Agriculture's school
food programs, day carP. food pro­gram,
summer food program and
special food program for women, in­fants
and children.
2
SCHOOL FOOD PROGRAMS
There are four major changes in
the school food programs as a result
of the new law, according to Gene
Dickey, manager of the school nutri­tion
programs branch for the Food
and Nutrition Service. One "redefines
schools" and in effect, extends the
lunch program beyond schools to
places like orphanages, and homes
for the mentally retarded. The sec­ond
makes the breakfast program
available to any school that needs it.
The third addresses the problem of
food waste in high schools and the
fourth makes reduced-price meals
available to more children.
Lunch Program Extended
Bakersville Detention Center.
Athens Home for Orphans. Stillwell
Home for the Mentally Retarded.
What do all these places have in
common? They can now all join the
National School Lunch Program.
With funds and food, the National
School Lunch Program helped pro­vide
meals for over 25 million chil­dren
in schools last year. Now, this
program is available to children liv­ing
in institutions.
P. L. 94-105 extends the school
lunch program beyond schools by
"redefining schools" to include insti­tutions
where children live. Mr.
Dickey calls this "one of the most far­reaching
changes made in the pro­gram."
By the end of the year, Mr.
Dickey expects 400,000 children liv­ing
in institutions to be eating meals
provided through the National
School Lunch Program.
"In order to join the program, insti­tutions
no longer have to have an ed­ucation
program," said Mr. Dickey,
"but they must be structured to serve
children ." Private, as well as public,
institutions can be in the program. if
they are licensed and non-profit.
Just as with schools in the pro­gram,
the amount of money the insti­tutions
receive for their lunch pro­grams
is based on the number of
needy children they serve.
Breakfast
Many nutritionists consider break­fast
the most important meal of the
day. However, studies show most
students come to school with little or
no breakfast. But now, Congress has
provided permanent authorization
for the National School Breakfast
Program and any school that needs
to provide breakfast can join.
Before the new law, the breakfast
program was a pilot project available
in only about 16 percent of the 88,000
schools participating in the National
School Lunch Program. About 2 mil­lion
students are taking advantage of
the program now, but Mr. Dickey
hopes the expanded breakfast pro­gram
will reach another half million
youngsters before the end of the
school year.
The program provides a balanced
morning meal of milk, fruit or fruit
juice, and bread or cereal , and is
available for needy students free or
at a reduced price of no more than
20 cents.
Mr. Dickey expects growth in the
breakfast program over the next few
years, but he sees this growth sty­mied
by social and economic pres­sures.
"Many people feel breakfast
is one of the last bastions of the fam-food
and nutrition
ily unit. They see school breakfast as
an intrusion into the family's do­main-
and I expect this attitude to
limit the growth of the program.
"Breakfast also poses some new
problems for cafeteria managers and
we're working on these now," Mr.
Dickey said. "School districts have
an additional workload to contend
with as well as increased hours for
cafeteria employees. Scheduling and
supervising children during the break­fast
period 30 minutes to an hour
before school actually starts is an­other
problem area for the schools,"
he added.
As required by the new law, States
and the Federal government are now
conducting information campaigns
to make people aware of the avail­ability
of the breakfast program and
its benefits.
Offer vs. Serve- The Food Waste
Solution
When is a student too old to be
told what he has to eat for lunch?
Congress considered this question in
drafting the new legislation. The re­sult-
senior high school students
now have the right to decide what
they want for lunch and can't be re-february
19 76
quired to take food they don't intend
to eat.
For cafeteria managers, this means
they must only offer instead of serve
the Type A lunch prescribed by the
National School Lunch Program.
This change is aimed at the prob­lem
of food waste in high school
lunch programs. Not all high school
students want to eat the 2 ounces of
meat, Y4 cup fruit and/or vegetables,
slice of bread, 2 tablespoons of but­ter
and 8 ounces of fluid milk the
Type A lunch provides. The result has
been a lot of wasted food. "While
Congress wants to meet national
nutrition objectives," Mr. Dickey
said, "it is also very sensitive to the
national and world concern with the
issue of food waste.
"With this change," Mr. Dickey
continued, "I think we are finally
acknowledging that high school stu­dents
are adults. By the time our stu­dents
reach high school, their food
patterns are basically set. The re­sponsibility
for teaching the value of
good nutrition must fall heaviest on
educators and cafeteria managers
dealing with children in their forma­tive
years.
"At the high school level," Mr.
Dickey added, "our responsibility is
to offer a variety of well-prepared,
nutritious food. If the education
process has taken hold and if a vari­ety
of good food is available, I ex­pect
our students will choose a lunch
consistent with good nutrition. I real­ize
this is an ideal situation. But, even
when that situation doesn't exist, I
see little advantage in requiring stu­dents
to take food and waste it."
The new legislation still requires
students to pay the full price for the
Type A meal whether or not they
take all the components. Essentially,
said Mr. Dickey, this was done to pre­vent
the government-supported
lunch program from turning into a
government-supported snack
program.
Schools will still be reimbursed for
the complete Type A lunch, even if a
student only takes part of it. Just as
now, however, the reimbursements
will be periodically adjusted tore­flect
the actual cost of producing the
student's meal.
Free and Reduced Price Meals
At the beginning of this year only
20 percent of schools participating in
the National School Lunch Program
offered reduced-price lunches to
needy children. Now all participating
schools offer them.
The new law requires all schools
to serve reduced-price meals and
also increases the number of students
eligible for the program.
The new legislation sets income
eligibility at 95 percent above the
income poverty guidelines recom­mended
by the Secretary of Agricul­ture.
This means children from a
family of four with an income of
3
$9,770 are now eligible for reduced
price benefits . Previously, eligibility
was held to a maximum of 75 percent
above the guidelines, which is $8,770
for a family of four.
As a result of these legislative
changes in the program, Mr. Dickey
expects to see about 2 million more
students taking advantage of the
lunch program by the end of the
school year.
Eligibility for free meals remains
the same. Using the Secretary's
guidelines, States have the option of
increasing the maximum level of eli­gibility
by as much as 25 percent. For
instance, the guidelines set $5,010 as
the level of eligibility for a family of
four . States may increase that figure
by as much as 25 percent -to $6,260
for a family of four.
Local school officials are allowed
to double-check information on free
and reduced price applications if
they have reason to believe it is
false or incomplete.
A child whose parent or guardian
is unemployed is eligible for free or
reduced-price lunches if the family's
income falls within the poverty
guidelines.
4
CHILD CARE FOOD PROGRAM
" The day care program is no long­er
just for especially needy children,"
according to Margaret Glavin, pro­gram
manager. All public and private
day care centers, if they are nonprof­it,
can now join. This includes family
day care homes, Head Start Centers,
settlement houses and recreation
centers.
Understandably, Ms. Glavin ex­pects
the number of children in the
program to grow by as much as 50
percent in the coming year. Current­ly,
about 450,000 children are in the
day care program.
The Child Care Food Program sup­ports
day care centers with money
and food for breakfasts, lunches,
suppers and snacks. Before the new
law, the program was available only
through day care centers in poverty
areas or in areas with a great many
working mothers.
To join the program, day care cen­ters
must have (or be moving toward)
a tax exempt status or participate in
another Federal program requiring
tax exempt status. They must also
be licensed and meet Federal inter­agency
day care requirements estab­lished
in 1968 by the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare, the
Department of Labor and the Office
of Economic Opportunity.
Just as with schools in the National
School Lunch Program, the amount
of money the day care centers re­ceive
is based on the number of
needy children they serve.
"One of our biggest problems in
administering this expanded pro­gram,"
according to Ms. Glavin,
" concerns family day care homes,
where as few as three to five children
may be involved. To help solve this ~
problem, participating family day
care homes have sponsoring organi­zations
which develop management
plans, providing assistance to homes
and handling reimbursements."
At the State level, the Child Care
Food Program is administered by
State education agencies or an alter­nate
agency designated by the State,
or the regional office of the Food and
Nutrition Service.
The Child Care Food Program is
authorized by the new law to operate
until September 30, 1978.
SUMMER FOOD PROGRAM
The Summer Food Program feeds
needy children during summer
months and vacations when schools
are closed and lunch programs are
not operating. Two million needy
children received meals through the
summer program last year, and that
number may increase by as much as
60 percent during the coming year as
a result of the new public law.
The program is now available to
residential summer camps; it was
limited to nonresidential public and
private (nonprofit) institutions, such
as city recreation programs .
Summer camps and nonresidential
institutions qualify to sponsor the
federally subsidized food program if
one-third of the children they serve
are from needy families. Under the
old law, institutions qualified only if
half the children were needy.
food and nutrition
In addition, sponsors are now able
to serve breakfasts, lunches, suppers
and snacks as long as the meals don't
overlap. Last year, the number of
meals sponsors could serve depend­ed
on the length of time children
were at the meal site.
Under the new legislation, the pro­gram
is available from May to Sep­tember
and is authorized to operate
until September 30, 1977.
Funding under the revised program
will be based on performance- how
many children were fed and at what
cost to the sponsor- as opposed to
an apportionment formula as in the
past. Also, all meals will now be
served free, and sponsoring organiza­tions
will no longer be required to
tally paid and reduced-price meals.
Maximum rates of reimbursement
are established at 81.5 cents for
lunches and suppers; 45.5 for break­fasts;
and 21.25 for snacks. In March,
these rates will be adjusted accord­ing
to the changes in the Consumer
Price Index. Sponsoring organizations
will submit claims at least monthly.
To help sponsors get ready for
their summer and vacation feeding
programs, " start-up" funds are avail­able
at the discretion of the States for
initial planning and training efforts.
While start-up funds are optional,
however, States are required to pro­vide
sponsors with advance funding
for actual program expenses.
february 1976
PROGRAM
ADMINISTRATION
USDA is required to study pro­posed
cost accounting requirements
and report back to Congress with
recommendations for legislation by
October 7, 1976. Under this provi­sion,
schools cannot be penalized if
they do not begin cost accounting
procedures within the coming year.
Program manager Gene Dickey, how­ever,
encourages schools to use this
as a "start-up" year and to go ahead
with cost accounting if possible.
The new law requires USDA to
conduct a study to determine the
level of funding needed by States for
administration of child nutrition pro­grams.
This report is to include a
study of plate waste and be submit­ted
to Congress by March 1, 1976.
PROGRAM FOR WOMEN,
INFANTS AND CHILDREN
The Supplemental Food Program
for Women, Infants and Children
(WIC) attempts to improve the nutri­tional
status of a specific group of
people-pregnant women, infants
and children up to age 5.
Under the new law, WIC is extend­ed
through September 1978 at a level
of $250 million annually. There are
also a number of changes which im­prove
the program for both the ad­ministering
agencies and recipients .
Eligibility for the program now in­cludes
women from the time of preg­nancy
through 6 months postpartum
and children until their fifth birthday.
Before the new law, women could be
in the program only up until 6 weeks
postpartum, or 1 year if they were
breastfeeding, and children until
age 4.
As of December, there was an ap­proved
caseload of 750,000 recipi­ents,
but only about 500,000 were
actually in the program. The new law
increases the allowable administra­tive
expenses from 10 to 20 percent,
giving States the administrative cap­ability
to serve the approved case­load
of 750,000.
The new law also requires that two
groups of experts be organized to
study the operation of the WIC pro­gram.
The first of these is an advisory
committee established for the single
purpose of determining and recom­mending
to the Secretary of Agricul­ture
and Congress the best method
of evaluating and assessing health
benefits of the program.
The second group is the ongoing
Advisory Council on Maternal Infant
and Fetal Nutrition established tore­port
annually to the President and
Congress on any recommended ad­ministrative
or legislative changes. *
5
HOW TWO
LUNCH
PROGRAMS
SAVE
MONEY
By Ronald ]. Rhodes and
Carol M. D'Arrezo
1.
To some 30,000 Tulsa youngsters,
the school lunches they eat daily
may seem to be the direct result of
food service workers in the kitchen.
But they are part of an effort that
extends far beyond the cafeterias.
These meals are the product of an
elaborate purchasing, storage and
delivery system designed to provide
this northeastern Oklahoma city's
school lunch managers with quality
foods at the lowest possible cost.
"Money the taxpayers of Tulsa
were willing to spend years ago in
setting up good warehousing and de­livery
systems has paid off in this
time of inflation and higher food
prices," says Malcolm Craig, pur­chasing
director for the district.
The delivery system includes four
trucks which deliver food Monday
through Thursday from the school
district's central warehouse to more
than 100 schools. Food worth about
$40,000 is delivered each day-some
of this food has been stored
in the warehouse for several months.
The warehouse contains 29,000
square feet and includes three large
walk-in coolers and three freezers,
each 40 feet long, 27 feet wide and
17 feet high. This facility allows the
school system to buy and store food
supplies in carload lots, at a relative­ly
low cost through volume and di­rect
purchase.
Nearly all the food used in the
Tulsa school cafeterias is bought on a
bid basis. Notices ~t' the item needed
are sent to a list of brokers who sub­mit
a price. Samples are requested, if
the product is new.
The district's food service office
furnishes the purchasing department
6
written specifications for all food
items. In addition, new products are
analyzed by district food service di­rector
Mary Harris and some of her
dietitians. Brand names are removed,
before analysis, according to Ms.
Harris, and each sample is tested for
quality. Results of these tests are
considered in awarding contracts.
"The lowest bid is not accepted if
the product does not meet specifica­tions
of our staff," she points out.
To maintain this high standard and
still keep costs down, John Holder­man,
purchasing agent for the dis­trict,
watches the commodity mar­kets
closely, including futures, to de­termine
the best time to buy foods.
Printouts also help in food delivery
to schools. Each school lunch mana­ger
sends an order to the district food
service department weekly. The list is
checked and then sent to the com­puter.
The warehouse gets a com­puter
list showing the total amount
of food ordered and a list showing
the amou!lt needed at each school.
The food is then loaded into the
trucks according to school and de­livery
schedule. Every school gets a
delivery at least once a week, some
more often, depending on storage
space.
How effective has the food pur­chasing
and storage system been?
" It's saved us a lot of money," says
Mr. Holderman. "For example, the
cost of sugar for our schools never
went above $38 a hundred weight
this year. We bought before the price
rise started and had enough to last
until the situation eased ."
"When we think supplies of a
product may be short and prices may
rise, we often buy a year's supply or
more," he says.
"We never know how many bids
we will get," he points out. "On some
vegetables we may get 15 or 20 bids
On foods that are scarce, we could
get just one or two."
Because the district can hold food
in the warehouse for several months,
the purchasing department is also
able to take advantage of special
prices. If a special price appears on
an item not normally used by food
service, Mr. Holderman checks with
Ms. Harris to see if it might be used
effectively in school lunches.
To ensure the availability of sup­plies
to schools in the district, a com­puter
helps keep track of the amount
of food on hand at all times and how
much it is worth. An updated inven­tory
printout goes to the purchasing
department each week. By checking
the amount on hand and the mini­mum
needed, department personnel
can tell when to reorder an item.
In fact the storage facility coupled
with perceptive food buying has en­abled
the school system to keep
lunch prices stable for the past 3
years.
"The Tulsa warehousing system is
an outstanding example of foresight
and planning," says Fred Jones, State
school lunch director.
2.
Last year may well go down in his­tory
as the year of the rebate. Prices
have been rolled back on everything
from taxes and new cars to curling
irons and chain saws. But most of
these refunds have been limited to
single, one-time purchases. Not so
for the children who attend elemen­tary
school in New Jersey's East
Greenwich Township. They get a S­cent
rebate every day on the price of
a school lunch.
Since April, children attending
East Greenwich, Mickleton, and
Mount Royal elementary schools
have been paying 40 cents instead of
45 cents for a Type A lunch. Of the
500 New Jersey school systems par­ticipating
in the National School
Lunch Program, only one other school
system has been able to reduce
prices this year. In fact, most New
Jersey public schools have had to
raise lunch prices by 5 cents, accord­ing
to Miriam Hughes, food service
coordinator for the State department
of education.
" Lowering the price of lunch in
school this year is really an achieve­ment,"
observed Ms. Hughes. " East
Greenwich's food service staff, under
the direction of Frances Pietrangelo,
~ is doing an exceptional job in main­taining
a fine school lunch program
while managing to hold expenses
down."
A relative newcomer to school
food and nutrition
....
food service, Ms. Pietrangelo started
as the supervisor of East Greenwich's
primary school lunch system in 1972.
Her job was to open a lunch program
for the township's three primary
schools.
"Truthfully," the school lunch
manager explained, "I almost didn't
get the job. I had never run a food
service program in a school before,
so I wasn't the board's first choice.
Fortunately for.me, the woman who
was selected for the position decided
to accept a job somewhere else .
so the board asked me if I was still in­terested
. I was delighted."
Ms. Pietrangelo found that a cafe­teria
in East Greenwich could serve
all three schools. She equipped the
cafeteria with the help of funds from
USDA's non-food assistance pro­gram.
To equip, staff and stock the
new cafeteria, the school spent
$3,600. .
East Greenwich School, which
serves third to sixth graders, is next to
Mickleton School, with all second
graders, so Mickleton children simply
walk over to East Greenwich's
cafeteria each noon. Children in kin­dergarten
and first grade go to Mount
Royal , and have their lunches
trucked hot from Ms. Pietrangelo's
kitchen.
Since the day the East Greenwich
lunch program opened for business,
it's been entirely self-supporting. The
payroll, equipment, food purchases,
and even tuition for food service
training courses, are all paid with
proceeds from lunch sales. Even after
expenses, nearly $2,000 remained at
the end of last year. The school chan­neled
this money back into the lunch
operation, which lowered lunch
prices this year.
Ms. Pietrangelo has three basic
rules to keep costs down: make full
use of USDA-donated foods; rely on
"home" cooking as much as possible;
and plan purchases and menus very
carefully.
" Staying on top of things is a 24
hour a day job for me," said Ms.
Pietrangelo. "But I wouldn't have it
any other way . . . I love it!"
Ms. Pietrangelo's food service
career began as a teenager when she
worked at a restaurant fountain in
her South Philadelphia neighbor-february
19 76
hood. She moved from her job as a
sandwich-maker at the restaurant to
a year-long training program in food
service sponsored by a drug store
chain. The training program led to a
~position supervising three large foun­tains
and cafeterias owned by the
chain. After a number of years, Ms.
Pietrangelo left the chain and estab­lished
and managed a restaurant in
the southern division of Philadel­phia's
Albert Einstein Hospital.
"When you work in the private
sector, you have to stay out of the
red to remain in business. It's vital to
watch every aspect of your operation
closely and pinpoint areas of profit
and loss," asserted Ms. Pietrangelo.
Keeping a tight inventory and un­derstanding
price trends are crucial
to meeting a budget, according to
the food service manager. When the
cost of any product or brand
becomes excessive, she substitutes a
less expensive item .
"It's important to have a goal in
your budget," she explained. "Smart
shopping and planning is hard work,
but it pays off-especially when you
can pass the savings on to the kids."
Ms. Pietrangelo speaks of her
customers with the same warm affec­tion
that she does of her own family.
Her dedication is evident in the effort
she puts into planning each month's
menus. She varies the menus to make
the most of seasonal bargains and
USDA foods.
"I know I'm not alone in saying
that I don't like to see a lot of plate
waste. Children's food habits must be
considered." She added, " But I
believe that it's important to encour­age
them to try new things ."
The food service manager seems
to have found a balance between ser­ving
student favorites and intro­ducing
new foods. The children enjoy
a wide range of entrees and less
popular foods-fish, for example­get
special merchandising.
"Television has a big influence on
children," Ms. Pietrangelo explained,
" and I try to capitalize on its positive
effects. Fast food commercials make
anything served on a bun look good.
So we tried putting our batter-dipped
fish on a bun. The kids loved it."
Ms. Pietrangelo has made a game
out of trying new foods. Some trays
containing the new item have lucky
numbers, and kids with lucky num­bers
win a hot pretzel or ice cream
bar.
Thinking of ways to get kids to eat
vegetables is a lot. more work, even
for a pro like Ms. 'Pietrangelo. She
has discovered that one successful
approach is to sneak them into des­serts.
However, finding recipes for these
unusual desserts sometimes presents
a problem. Recently, Ms. Pietrangelo
artfully persuaded a salesman to part
with a secret recipe for a beet des­sert,
and "beetnik" cake is now a
favorite of elementary schoolchild­ren
in East Greenwich. Carrot cookies
are popular, too.
The staff's vegetable soup is
another dish that needs no merchan­dising-
not that many of the staff's
homemade creations do.
"We have fun making them , and
we save money, too," said Ms.
Pietrangelo.
Equally popular are green beans
with peanut granules donated by
USDA. Ms. Pietrangelo makes sure
that all the commodities her schools
receive are used fully . At least six en­trees
a month are made entirely from
donated foods .
With so much planning going into
the lunches, it's no surprise that pro­gram
participation is high. Even
though many of the children live
close enough to school to walk home
for lunch, over 75 percent buy lunch
at school.
"We insist on making lunchtime a
happy experience," said one cafe­teria
staff member. "We know
almost all the children by their first
names."
Ms. Pietrangelo puts a tremendous
amount of time and energy into run­ning
the school's cafeteria but she
goes to food shows and training
courses, too.
Though she has much to be proud
of, Ms. Pietrangelo is quick to point
out that she hasn't always been suc­cessful.
Once she served "hoagies" or
submarine sandwiches to the first
graders.
" I forgot they didn't have any front
teeth," she said laughing. "We finally
ended up cutting both ends off of the
rolls." i:r
7
The emphasis is on teamwork
in this nationwide effort
of Management and Technical
Assistance.
Big city school officials are finding answers to their
food service problems these days, with the help of a new
management assistance effort that features a team
approach.
Called Management and Technical Assistance or MTA,
the effort brings together representatives from all the
groups responsible for administering school feeding pro­grams-
local school districts, State departments of edu­cation,
and the Food and Nutrition Service.
The representatives form teams that visit large school
systems and review every aspect of the food service oper­ation.
The teams' main task is to help identify specific
problems and work with school districts to develop solu­tions.
But another aim is to find out what makes certain ,
programs especially successful so other schools can ben­efit
from this knowledge.
8
FNS has primary responsibility for coordinating MTA;
however, State and local personnel play important roles
in planning and carrying out the effort.
"One of the main objectives of MT A is to improve the
management and operation of child nutrition programs at
all levels," explains Gene Dickey, national MTA coordi­nator
and manager of the School Nutrition Programs
Branch of the FNS Child Nutrition Division. "The team
concept of MT A is consistent with our philosophy that
the most effective way to do this is through the coopera­tive
efforts of personnel from all agencies involved in ad­ministering
the programs."
The focus of MTA is on schools in cities with popula­tions
of 100,000 or more, since program administrators
have found that large school systems often have more
problems than smaller systems. During the initial phases
of the effort in fiscal year 1975, MT A teams visited 34
school districts across the country. They will visit an addi­tional
86 school districts during fiscal year 1976, and by
the end of fiscal year 1977, the teams will have visited
school districts in 157 cities.
Each MT A team includes personnel with varying levels
of expertise in three major areas- fiscal management,
program management, and food production. Because
team members have different specialties, they can devel­op
coordinated approaches to problems.
"Many of the schools' problems overlap these areas, so
it's especially helpful to have team members work to­gether
on solutions," Gene Dickey explains.
"The teams examine all three areas in their reviews," he
continues, "but they do have flexibility in determining
what emphasis to place on each area, depending on the
particular needs of the school district."
The 2-week session in the Dallas Independent School
District this fall is just one approach. The MT A team in­cluded
representatives from the school district office, the
FNS West-Central Regional Office, and the Texas educa­tion
agency.
Some team members spent the entire time at the dis­trict
office, thoroughly examining the district's computer­ized
accounting system and other fiscal operations.
Others looked at program management, examining
such things as: implementation of the free and reduced­price
meal policy, menu development, purchasing proce­dures,
staffing patterns, equipment needs, and communi­cation
between the district office and the schools. They
took trips to the warehouse where commodities are
stored, and to the test kitchen where food service workers
sample foods and develop recipes.
" The recipes developed at the district's test kitchen are
the best I've ever seen," commented one team member.
" The explicit, detailed instructions guarantee a uniformly
satisfactory product from school to school. I plan to use
samples of these in teaching my summer food service
workshops."
food and nutrition
Much of the team's work took place in the cafeterias
of the district's 19 schools, where reviewers examined
food service.
They arrived at around 7 a.m. if the schools had break­fast
programs, and stayed until they had explored every
aspect of the school's food service operation.
While some looked at the storeroom and its organiza­tion,
others checked sanitation, use of recipes, work sta­tions
and equipment.
Team members also visited with teachers and students
to ask about their involvement in the lunch program.
They checked the atmosphere of the cafeteria and the
cashier system used on the serving line, noted the water
temperature in the dishwasher, and made sure that meals
met the nutritional requirements of the National School
Lunch Program. The amount of plate waste, the length of
time students spent in the serving I ine, and how well plate
lunches competed with a Ia carte items were other areas
of concern.
At the end of each day, the team reported all findings
to school food service director Julia Wells. The reviewers
worked closely with Ms. Wells in developing the recom­mendations
for improvement included in the team report
that followtd the visit.
The report included a recommendation that the district
expand its training program to offer more courses for caf­eteria
managers and cooks. It also described in detail
what team members called an excellent inventory sys­tem
. All schools use the same system to keep track of
how much food they have, when it arrived, and how
much it is worth. They also use uniform storage proce­dures,
designed to assure that newest items are used last.
The Dallas review was complete when the team fin­ished
its report shortly after the visit. However, there will
be a follow-up effort organized by the Texas State educa­tion
agency.
"Follow-up is an important part of every MTA review,"
points out Gene Dickey, "because it gives the groups in­volved
a chance to see that recommended solutions to
thP problems are in fact working."
There are several ways follow-up can be done. Team
members can make return visits, or other specialists can
visit the district to help with such areas as cost account­ing,
equipment, and menu planning.
MT A organizers have found that the visits and follow­up
efforts are helpful to team members and program
administrators as well as local school districts. Team
members get a chance to learn from each other, and they
often return to their jobs with a better understanding of
the overall operation of the child nutrition programs .
"Many program regulations were drafted years ago
when schools were still single unit entities," Mr. Dickey
explains. "The visits should give us the opportunity to
assist major cities with their management problems and
to identify issues which may result in clarification of
february 1976
An MTA team member from the Dallas Independent School
District observes lunch preparation in an elementary school.
9
An MTA team member from FNS talks with students while exam­ining
the amount of plate was te at a Dallas elementary school.
10
national policies and regulations."
"The reviews," adds Mr. Dickey, "also enable Federal
and State staffs to determine areas in which there is need
for further training.
"We already know that there is need for additional
training at all levels of administration," he says. "For ex­ample,
staff development would be useful in such areas
as computerized accounting systems, menu planning,
and equipment - among other things."
How do district officials who have partic ipated in MT A
reviews feel about the effort?
Dr. Nolan Estes, superintendent of the Dallas Inde­pendent
School District, says he's firmly in favor of it.
"We're delighted to interact with State and federal
people to improve our food service program," he ex­plains.
"After all, this area is a vital link in our overall
education system."
Here are some highlights from MT A
visits in other parts of the country:
Hammond, Indiana
During a visit in the spring of 1975, the MT A team
placed special emphasis on an analysis of the fiscal status
of Hammond's lunch program . Concerned over an antici­pated
cash deficit in the school food service account,
district officials had asked the team to give extra consid­eration
to this area.
After 2 years of financial losses, the officials were
thinking of closing down their school food service opera­tion.
The school board operates 32 schools in Hammond.
Most of the schools have on-site kitchens, but there is
also a limited satellite feeding operation in the district. In
December 1974, the average number of meals served
daily was roughly 8,750, with student participation rang­ing
from 16 to over 96 percent of total enrollment.
In reviewing fiscal operations, the team's activities
centered on: an examination of routine reporting and
accounting procedures, and an in-depth analysis of the
financial condition of the food service account.
In the first area, while team members did recommend
preparation of a monthly operating statement for each
for each school, they found that the program was being
operated under accepted recordkeeping procedures .
More significant findings were in the second area.
The in-depth analysis by the MT A team demonstrated
that, despite its past financial losses, the existing food ser­vice
system was currently breaking even. An advance of
funds from the school board had solved a temporary cash
flow problem , and current income was sufficient to repay
that advance.
food and nutrit ion
The team's analysis provided opportunity to put this
problem of cash balance into proper perspective against
the broader background of total operations of the school
food service system . From this broader perspective,
school officials could clearly see that they had a viable
food service program going, and they discarded the plans
they had been making to discontinue it .
Fulton County, Georgia
The MT A team in Fulton County found an excellent
training program for food service employees. Before
school opens and after it closes each year, all employees
attend 3-day workshops. In addition, all employees at­tend
professional meetings and are encouraged to take a
baking course offered by a local vocational school and
other courses offered by the state division of school food
service. New employees receive on-the-job training, with
managers being trained by the two county food service
coordinators, and staffers being trained by managers and
coordinators .
The team also commended the Fulton County school
food service staff for its high-quality food, pointing out
that multiple-choice menus are offered in all high
schools, and that all schools bake their own breads and
desserts .
But even a well-run program such as this can benefit
from the recommendations resulting from an MT A visit.
For example, team members found that district schools
often used various methods to arrive at meal or milk
counts. To help provide useful administrative information
and facilitate audits, the MT A team recommended that
Fulton County develop a standardized system of forms
and procedures to use in all schools and showed them
some examples .
Sacramento, California
MT A team members who were visiting the Sacramento
Unified School District discovered a common man­agement
problem .
The school district had developed sophisticated but
practical data processing systems for collecting and
organizing information about school food service opera­tions.
Such basic information as cost and income data
and inventory control of purchased and donated foods
was readily available from computers.
Yet, like many other districts that have computers
available, Sacramento had made limited or no use of this
valuable management tool. According to Larry Wharton,
a supervisory food program specialist in FNS' Western
Regional Office, " School districts that have not taken ad­vantage
of computers usually have a number of reasons .
february 1976
Frequently they don't feel that they have the expertise, or
are considered low priority users of the computers. Often ,
however, it is simply a matter of not realizing the value to
their operation and how to go about getting plugged into
the computer." '·'
Together with State agencies, the FNS Western Re­gional
Office is working on ways to help schools benefit
from computer systems. They are currently developing a
model which will provide districts with a guide for greater
and more efficient use of computers to fit their individual
needs. According to Mr. Wharton, the model will not dic­tate
what they should do, but suggest things that can be
done, using such districts as Sacramento as examples.
The model, which will fit most any district's management
structure, will provide a flow chart of steps necessary to
achieve the desired degree of computerization .
Trenton, New Jersey
Throughout the country, many school lunch managers
are faced with the problem of establishing a ticket
system, or other system of payment, that does not overtly
distinguish paying students from those who receive free
or reduced price lunches. In early October, an MT A team
visited 14 schools in Trenton and worked with lunch
managers and administrative staff to devise some new
methods to help combat this problem .
The team recommended that elementary schools try
switching to a system where all students are given enve­lopes
to return to their teacher with the appropriate pay­ment
inside. An alternative system would be for students
to report to the collection location individually, rather
than as a group. In the junior high and high schools, the
MT A team suggested that tickets be sold for full price
lunches as well as free and reduced-price lunches .
The team explained that an all -ticket system would
make accounting for lunches easier and more accurate.
In many schools, plate counts and attendance records
were being used to estimate the number of meals served .
Under the new procedure, lunch managers would be able
to rely on a ticket system for an accurate breakdown of
how many free, reduced, and full price lunches were ac­tually
served each day. The tickets would be identical ex­cept
for inconspicuous code numbers that would tell the
lunch manager whether to record the lunches sold as
free, reduced , or full price .
The MT A team also suggested an alternative to selling
tickets. If a school preferred, it could set up a master
roster with the names of all students on it. Children would
pay for their meals in advance and be checked off as they
passed through the lunch line. The cashier would be the
only person to know whether a child was getting a free,
reduced , or full price meal , and could use the completed
roster as an accounting tool . 1:r
11
********************************************
BAGELS FoR THE "I want teachers and principals to
promote these special meals in the
BICENTENNIAL classroom and through school-wide
publicity," she explains. "If the stu­By
Melanie Watts dents know why the meals are being
1-..:...._----------------------------~ served and understand the featured
food items, they're more likely to buy
the lunch."
The food service director says this
has always been the case when she's
worked with students and teachers to
coordinate menu plans with class­room
projects. At the teacher's re­quest,
Ms. Green planned a lunch
featuring food from the country the
class was studying. And students ad­vertised
the meal with bilingual post­ers,
cafeteria decorations and an­nouncements.
"These efforts were always suc-
1----------------r---------------~ cessful, even when the meal was B agels stole the show when
Colorado schools paid tribute to
Rosh Hashana this fall.
Students at the 18 schools in the
Northglenn-Thornton district were
treated to a Jewish lunch September
5, on the eve of the Jewish New Year.
This meal is the first in a series of spe­cial
school lunches that will honor
the many groups of people who set­tled
our country.
" It's our contribution to the bicen­tennial
celebration," explains Hen­rietta
Green, district school food
service director, who came up with
the idea for the special lunches. She
and her staff will plan at least one
ethnic menu for each month, timing
them with special occasions when­ever
possible.
Originally, the special occasion
selected for the Jewish meal was
Yom Kippur, also a Jewish holiday.
But Ms. Green changed those plans
when she learned that Yom Kippur is
a time for fasting.
"I'm sure we'll make a lot more
mistakes on different things before
we're through," Ms. Green laughs.
"But at least we're getting an
education."
The Jewish meal, in addition to
bagels, featured baked chicken and
noodles red cabbage, salad, honey
.cake and milk. There are few Jewish
families in the community which is
just outside Denver, so the meal was
12
a novelty for everyone, including the
cooks.
"Bagels are traditionally boiled in
salt water," explains Gladys Beach,
manager at Merritt Hutton Junior
High School. "But this isn't a practi­cal
method of preparation for school
cafeterias since it takes too long and
ties up too much of the equipment."
So the Merritt Hutton staff came
up with a substitute method that pro­duced
bagels good enough to war­rant
raves from the Jewish guests at
lunch. They used a heavy biscuit
dough, with extra eggs and ~ugar,
and baked the bagels in the oven.
Students particularly enjoyed the
hard, doughnut-shaped rolls even
though many at first mistook them
for dessert.
Another problem Ms. Green en­countered
in striving for authenticity
involved a traditional dietary law
that prohibits serving meat and milk
together. But to meet Type A require­ments,
each meal served included a
half pint of milk.
Student participation for the
Jewish meal equaled that for any
other meal served so far this year,
proving Ms. Green's theory that
everyone enjoys a little variety,
especially when it's handled correct­ly.
By this, Ms. Green means involv­ing
teachers and principals in the eth­nic
lunch series.
something the kids had never tried
before," Ms. Green recalls. "Just like
everyone else, their interest must be
aroused."
If the Jewish meal is any indicator,
the ethnic series should be very suc­cessfu
I. Teachers plan to work the
menus into classroom discussions,
and principals have promised com­plete
cooperation.
Future menus will feature pretzels
for Germany, fish and chips for Scot­land,
meatballs for Sweden, chicken
curry for India and quiche Lorraine
for France.
But there are many more possibil­ities
than these, and Ms. Green is
open to suggestions. In fact, she's
made a plea for community assist­ance
on menu ideas.
"I'm hoping someone will come up
with a lunch representative of the
American Indian," she says. "So far,
all I've got for that one is fry bread."
But Ms. Green and her entire staff
continue to work on new ideas for
the school lunch program . Research­ing
cookbooks, adjusting recipes,
soliciting outside help and gaining
the administration's support is all
part of this project. It's involved a lot
of time, both at the office and at
home.
As far as Ms. Green is concerned,
though, it's time well spent. Because
in her book, variety is the spice of
lunch. 1::r
food and nutrition
SENIOR
FAIRS
Delaware's outreach effort
brings elderly and health
and social service agencies
together for three 1-day
festivals.
Reaching senior citizens with the
services they need to stay healthy
and self-sufficient has been a diffi­cult
challenge for government agen­cies
and social service groups. There
are well over 20 million elderly per­sons
living in the United States today,
making up 10 percent of the Nation's
population . However, senior citizens
constitute more than 16 percent of
the country's poor persons, accord­ing
to a recent survey conducted by
the U.S. Department of Health, Edu­cation,
and Welfare.
february 19 76
FNS has been closely involved in
efforts to reach the elderly poor with
food assistance, but successful at­tempts
to reach them have depended
largely on the footwork of local out­reach
people who make home visits.
With nearly two out of three needy
old persons living alone, the outreach
worker's job -telling the elderly
about services - has been a demand­ing
one . This past year, outreach for
oldsters took on a new dimension in
the State of Delaware.
The University of Delaware's Col­lege
of Home Economics and Coop­erative
Extension Service initiated an
" Aging Project" designed to provide
training, evaluation, and technical
support to the State's Title Ill and Ti­tle
VII programs for the elderly. The
Delaware Department of Health and
Social Service's division of aging ap­proved
and funded the project,
which was headed by Clare Davies.
Under the amended Older Ameri­cans
Act of 1965, Title Ill provides
funds for the operation of senior cen­ters,
while Title VII provides for low­cost
meals and nutrition information
at the centers or at special nutrition
sites throughout the year.
"We were trying, through the addi­tional
expertise and assistance of the
staff under contract at the university,
to streamline these programs and see
that the poorest of our senior citizens
are the first to benefit from the serv­ices
offered," said Chris Frysztacki,
nutritionist for the division of aging.
Even with a well organized pro­gram
of services for the elderly, two
problems still remained for the proj­ect:
discovering how much the elder­ly
knew about the services available,
and finding ways to get necessary
information to needy seniors.
To meet this need, two members
of the Aging Project staff, Ray Tyler
and Delores Colburn, carried out
plans for a senior festival-a day­long
fair which would bring together
volunteer organizations, State and
private social service agencies, and
senior citizens in one central loca­tion.
Mr. Tyler and Ms. Colburn found
that they could take advantage of
the State's compact size and coordi­nate,
from the State level, the efforts
of all State and local groups con­cerned
with providing services for the
aged .
"It would be a service that could
be provided at locations and times
responsive to elderly needs and situ­ations,"
pointed out Mr. Tyler.
Three day-long festivals were
scheduled for the early summer in
targeted locations throughout the
State - and all service agencies and
organizations concerned with the
health problems of the .elderly were
invited to set up exhibits and health
screening booths.
The project's staff made up a guest
list of elderly participants involved in
programs at the nutrition sites in
each area and launched an extensive
information campaign which includ­ed:
public service radio announce­ments;
newspaper notices; adver­tisements
in buses; and posters for
bulletin boards in senior centers,
apartment buildings, and stores .
The festival 's chairpersons also ar­ranged
transportation . At the festival
held in Wilmington, a long row of
yellow school buses lined up outside
the university's Wilcastle Center
promptly at 10 a.m ., delivering sev­eral
hundred low-income seniors to
the converted mansion. Inside, booth
after booth of informative displays,
brochures, and health screening
equipment filled the ballroom . The ·
exhibits extended into several other
rooms, with one room set aside as a
theater to show films of special in­terest
to the elderly. Crowds of sen­iors
gathered around the booths­having
their blood pressure taken
and hearing tested. They collected
brochures, and chatted with exhibi­tors.
At the FNS exhibit, visiting of­officer-
in-charge Ed McNichols an­swered
questions about the food
stam~ program and was swamped by
visitors requesting the FNS publica­tions
"Cooking for Two," and "Food
Guide for Older Folks ." In addition to
meeting a large number of older Del­awareans,
Mr. McNichols also met
many new people from other agen­cies
who are also involved with elder­ly
feeding and nutrition.
Ms. Colburn and Mr. Tyler con­sider
this contact and information ex­change
between exhibitors an impor­tant
secondary function of the senior
festivals.
"We hope that the festivals helped
get people working together, coop­erating
with each other, and unifying
13
their efforts," said Ms. Colburn .
For the elderly, too, the festivals
provided a welcome opportunity to
socialize and make new friends. The
department of aging served festival
visitors a free lunch and provided
entertainment.
While a senior citizen string band
struck up some old favorites, other
seniors in the audience took to the
floor and displayed their dancing
skills. Skits and interpretive readings
followed- playing to a full house.
Throughout the day, volunteers
recruited by the Aging Project staff
circulated about with questionnaires,
interviewing as many of the older
visitors as possible. The question­naires
were specifically designed to
determine how much festival visitors
knew about the services available to
them .
Questions dealt with food stamps
and, more particularly, with lunch
programs for the elderly at nearby
locations. Staff members asked festi ­val
visitors who were participating in
a lunch program, either at a senior
center or at a nutrition site, how they
felt about the meals served at the
centers, and how they rated their
own nutritional status and eating
habits. Through these informal inter­views,
Aging Project staffers hoped
to encourage elderly visitors with
limited incomes to take advantage of
one of the State's meal programs for
the elderly.
Since 1974 when food stamps be­came
available in Delaware, FNS
field representatives have been au­thorizing
nutrition sites to accept
food stamps as payment for the
meals they serve. Delaware's 24 sites
are also eligible to receive USDA­donated
foods. In the past year, do­nated
cheese and canned beef have
been used in senior centers such as
those operated by Wilmington's
Project SE RYE.
"The USDA-donated foods are in­corporated
into meals specifically
planned to conform with the dietary
restrictions common to the seniors,
and the foods defray the cost of each
lunch 11 cents," explains SERVE di­rector
Daphne Aaron.
The elderly wlio eat lunch at sen­ior
centers generally pay for their
meals by making small contributions
to a collection box, according to Ms.
Aaron. They're able to use either
14
money or food stamps as payment.
"Delaware switched over to food
stamps from food distribution in
1974, and we are working hard to get
all of our senior centers authorized to
accept stamps as quickly as possi­ble,"
explains Chris Frysztacki of the
division of aging office in Wil­mington.
She adds that the change­over
should greatly benefit Dela­ware's
older people.
The food stamp program has gen­erated
considerable interest among
the senior citizens, reports Ms.
Frysztacki, because it is consistent
with their lifestyles. Food stamps
allow seniors to buy food in amounts
they can conveniently use. Over half
of all senior citizens either live by
themselves or with one other person.
Many elderly cooks find pre­packaged
TV dinner-type meals not
only more convenient than meals
they make themselves, but many
times a necessity if their eyesight is
poor or other health problems inter­fere
with their ability to fix many
dishes.
Nutrition education at the senior
centers is concerned with total nutri­tional
requirements. Staff members
realize that for many seniors, lunch is
the only good meal of the day and
encourage the elderly participants to
apply at the local welfare office if
they might be eligible for additional
help through the food stamp pro­gram.
"The site manager talks up the
advantages of the food stamp pro­gram
and tells the seniors what they
must bring to their first interview,"
Ms. Frysztacki says. The manager
even arranges transportation for
them if they need assistance.
But the centers offer more than
nutrition, social and referral serv­ices
-they include employment
counseling. The Wilmington site is
the central office for the statewide
service. Staff members interview pro­spective
employers and encourage
them to provide jobs. The employ­ment
opportunities are then listed at
the centers.
"We feel that activities like those
provided at the senior centers and at
the senior festivals help elderl¥
Delawareans remain, or become, in­tegrated
with the rest of the commu­nity,"
Ms. Frysztacki adds, "not iso­lated
from it." it
This is the second
of two articles on
the food stamp
quality control
system. The first
article appeared in
the June 1975
issue of FOOD AND
NUTRITION.
Anyone who completes an appli­cation
for food stamps could be the
subject of a quality control review,
even if he is not currently participa­ting
in the food stamp program or
never received program benefits.
That's because food stamp quality
control reviewers check cases involv­ing
"negative actions" as well as "ac­tive"
cases. ln active case reviews,
the reviewer checks whether food
stamp participants are eligible for the
program in the month they are partic­ipating,
and if they are paying the
correct amount and receiving the
right food stamp allotment.
For negative action cases, the re­viewer
examines the State agency's
decision to deny a food stamp appli­cation
or terminate a household's
participation before the end of its
certification period. For every house­hold
denied benefits or withdrawn
from food stamp participation from
July through December 1974, about
19 households were authorized to re­ceive
food stamps .
Why might a State agency deny a
food stamp application?
Denial usually occurs when a
household does not meet one of the
food stamp eligibility criteria, ex­plains
Priscilla Shaw, Chief of the
Quality Control Evaluation Branch of
FNS' Food Stamp Division.
food and nutrition
QUALITY CO
"For example," says Ms. Shaw, "an
application is refused if the house­hold's
income or resources exceed
maximum limits set by USDA, or if an
applicant doesn't register for work, or
doesn't supply adequate verification
of income and resources."
Similarly, the food stamp office
terminates a recipient's food stamps
when an increase in income or re­sources
makes the household ineligi­ble
to participate in the program.
State quality control workers regu­larly
review a certain percentage of
these negative actions, although the
total number of reviews varies from
State to State. Every month each
State draws a sample of all negative
actions, and individual cases are ran­domly
selected from this sample for
review. FNS requires each State to re­view
from 75 to 800 cases every 6
months, depending on the State's to­tal
number of negative actions.
The reviewer begins by examining
the case file at the certification office
where the household applied.
"The case is reviewed for correct­ness
at the time the decision was
made," Priscilla Shaw explains. " The
reviewer checks only the reason giv­en
for the action, even if there is evi­dence
in the case file that the house­hold
is ineligible for other reasons."
If evidence in the case file is not
enough to prove that the decision un­der
review is correct or incorrect, the
reviewer goes a step further. He, or
she, phones or visits a "collateral
contact," such as a banker, doctor,
utility company, employer or land­lord.
If information is still missing,
the reviewer makes a home visit.
Some home visits may present
unique problems for the reviewer.
"For instance," says Ms. Shaw, "a
person may feel that he has been
february 19 76
treated unfairly by the local food
stamp office. In such cases, the re­viewer
must be sure that the pers0n
understands that the reviewer does
not have the authority to reverse the
local agency's decision."
The reviewer then reports his find­ings
to his quality control supervisor;
together they evaluate the informa­tion
and rule the action valid or inval­id.
Of the 19,449 negative actions re­viewed
during July through Decem­ber
1974, 7.3 percent were invalid­denied
or terminated incorrectly.
What are some of the common er­rors
made on food stamp denials and
terminations?
Ms. Shaw explains, "The State
agency might make a computation
error, or deny a household on the ba­sis
of excessive income when actual­ly
the net income is low enough to
qualify them for food stamps." For
instance, the case record might con­tain
evidence that a household had
$80 in medical expenses which the
caseworker did not deduct from
gross income; therefore, the reason
given for the denial, " excessive in­come,"
would not be correct.
Or another case record might indi­cate
"excessive resources" as the rea­son
fc~ denial. But if the record also
shows that there was an elderly per­son
in the household, the resource
limit would have been twice as high
and the household might have been
eligible.
An example of an incorrect termin­ation
would be one where the house­hold
was given no notice of termina­tion
from the program .
After the quality control reviewer
and his supervisor evaluate the rea­sons
for denial or term ination in each
case, the State agency forwards the
findings to the local certification of-
OL
fice, which corrects any errors.
In addition to this corrective ac­tion
at the local level, the quality
control system involves corrective
measures at the State level. FNS re­quires
States to take corrective ac­tion
when their error rates for both
active and negative actions exceed
certain levels which FNS considers
reasonable. For negative actions, the
acceptable error rate is 3 percent.
And when a State's incorrect nega­tive
actions exceed this rate, the
State must submit a corrective action
plan to FNS and implement it. If any
part of the plan is ineffective or
weak, the State must revise it.
A corrective action plan might in­clude
increased supervisory review of
individual cases, additional docu­mentation
and collateral contacts, or
additional staff training. Long-range
action might include changing in­structions
to clarify pmvisions that
are being misinterpreted and reduc­ing
workloads where errors are the re­sult
of excessive work assignments.
State agencies must submit a semi­annual
report to FNS on the validity
of their caseloads, identifying prob­lems
and stating what action has
been taken or planned to correct
these problems. These reports pro­vide
State agencies with the informa­tion
they need to detect weaknesses
in their operations. At the same time,
they make it possible for FNS to carry
out its responsibility to report to Con­gress
and the public on the nation­wide
status of food stamp eligibility
and issuance.
By working cooperatively, FNS
and State agencies are getting the
kind of information they need to ad­minister
the food stamp program,
and to make sure the program serves
those who need food assistance. 1:r
15
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
Division of Public Documents. Washington, D.C. 20402
Official Business.
Penalty for Private Use, $300
EARLL. BUTZ
Secretary of Agriculture
RICHARD L. FELTNER
Assistant Secretary of Agriculture
EDWARD j. HEKMAN
Ad min istrator
Food and Nutrition Service
JANICE A. KERN, Editor
MARCIA B. EDDINS, Art Director
FOOD AND NUTRITION is published
bimonthly by the Food and Nutrition
Service, U.S. Department of Agricul­ture,
Washington, D.C. 20250. The
use of funds f.or printing this publica­tion
has been· approved by the Di­rector
of the Office of Management
and Bi.!dget through November 3'0,
1976. Yearly subscription is $2.50
domestic, $3.15 foreign. Single copies
45 cen~s each. Sub-scription orders
should be sent to the Superintendent
of Documents, Government Printing
Office, Washir~gton D.C., 20402.
Reference to commercial products
and services does not imply endorse­ment
or discrimination by the De­partment
of Agriculture.
The Secretary of Agriculture has de­termined
that the publication of this
periodical is necessary in the trans­action
of the public business re ­quired
by law of this Department.
Prints of photos may be obtained
from Photo Library, U.S. Department
of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
20250.
~~- ~ ~ ~ -~
All p~~glalW? bf the U.S. D~gartment
of A.g'riculture are avai lable t6 every­one
yvithout regard to race, creed,
color, sex or national origin.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
2
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IQ
POSTAGE
& FEES PAID
U.S. DEPT.
OF
AGRICULTURE
AGR 101
THIRD CLASS BLK. RT.
Permit Number .005-5
New Child Nutrition Legislation
Twa·Lurt"d't Programs Save Money
MTA~ The Emphasis is on Teamwork
Btgeis for the:-Bicentennial
Senior Fairs
Quality Control