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On April 8, 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the California Department of Education’s (CDE) request for three waivers affecting summer meal service.
The following waivers are effective May 1, 2022 to April 30, 2023. Waiver information and important details are as follows:
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First Week Site Visit
The USDA has waived the requirement for Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) operators to visit each of their sites at least once during the first week of operation, as required under Title 7, Code of Federal Regulations (7 CFR), 225.15(d)(2). Program operators must be in good standing and are still required to conduct a full review of food service operations at each site within the first four weeks of operations, as well as maintain a reasonable level of site monitoring.
Operators in good standing that successfully operated the SFSP in the previous year, and/or successfully participated in the Child and Adult Care Food Program or the National School Lunch Program may utilize this waiver. This waiver is not for use by new SFSP program operators, or program operators with significant operational problems as identified in their previous administrative review. The CDE will notify program operators that may not utilize this waiver.
Also note that the first week site visit waiver does not apply to the Seamless Summer Option (SSO).
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Closed-Enrolled Site Area Eligibility
Program operators are allowed to establish area eligibility for closed-enrolled sites using school or census data as defined in USDA policy memo SFSP 03-2017, Area Eligibility in Child Nutrition Programs. The USDA has waived the requirement that program operators use meal applications to determine area eligibility for closed-enrolled sites in the SFSP and SSO, as required by U.S. Code Title 42, 1761(a)(1)(A)(i)(III) and 7 CFR, 225.15(f).
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Meal Service Time Restrictions
The USDA waived the meal service time restrictions for the SFSP and SSO, as required by 7 CFR, 225.16(c)(1) and (c)(2). Specifically, regulatory limits on the amount of time that must elapse between meal service, and the duration of meal service are waived. Program operators are still required to comply with application requirements to establish meal service times for each site and must keep their meal times updated in the Child Nutrition Information and Payment System
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Required Reporting
No program operator opt-in or CDE pre-approval is required to use the waivers, unless notified otherwise by the CDE for the first week of site visit waiver. However, the CDE is required to gather and report information back to the USDA about the use of the waivers. The CDE will issue a mandatory survey to SFSP and SSO program operators at a later date to collect this information.
Additional Information
For additional information and announcements about Summer Meals, please visit the Summer Food Service Program Information webpage.
For additional information about COVID-19 waivers, please visit the COVID-19 Policy and Waivers in CNPs webpage.
Contact Information
For any questions regarding these waivers, please contact your respective program’s County Specialist. The County Specialist for each program can be found in the Download Forms section of each respective program’s module in the Child Nutrition Information and Payment System
, Download Forms section:
- School Nutrition Programs (including SSO): Form ID Caseload
- SFSP: Form ID SFSP 01
Questions:
Nutrition Services Division | 800-952-5609
Last Reviewed: Thursday, April 21, 2022
