1. USDA Foods Update Tim Walsh Acting Branch Chief
Community Nutrition Programs
USDA FNS MARO

2. USDA Foods Topics: FNS Overview USDA Foods - Year in Review
Meeting the New Requirements
Provision 242 Update
New Tools for Schools

3. But first – a short video
USDA Foods Final QT 480p 16x9 - YouTube

5. USDA Food & Nutrition Service
Vision
To lead America in ending hunger and improving nutrition and health.
Mission Statement
The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) increases food security and reduces hunger in partnership with cooperating organizations by providing children and needy families access to food, a healthful diet, and nutrition education in a manner that supports American agriculture and inspires public confidence.

6. USDA Food & Nutrition Service
Seven Regional Offices and HQ
15 Nutrition Assistance Programs
Budget - $109.1 Billion (proposed)– FY13*
Programs Serve 1 in 4 Americans
-Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
47.5 million Individuals/month (October 2012)
-National School Lunch Program
31.7 million students in ~101,000 schools daily
*Source:

7. FNS Regional Offices
Regional offices work with their state and community partners to increase food security and reduce hunger by providing those in need with access to food, a healthful diet, and nutrition education.

8. FNS Regional Offices

9. FNS Programs That Utilize USDA Foods
National School Lunch Program
School Breakfast Program
Child and Adult Care Food Program
Summer Food Service Program
Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations

10. FNS Programs That Utilize USDA Foods
Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)
Commodity Supplemental Food Program
Nutrition Services Incentive Program
Processing
Charitable Institutions
Disaster Feeding and Situations of Distress

11. USDA Foods: NSLP Year in Review
FY 12 - USDA purchased 1.1 billion lbs of foods valued at over $1.4 billion FY 12 – NJ NSLP – 31.2 million pounds of food valued at $32.1 million
FY 11 USDA purchased 1.1 billion lbs valued at over $1.2 billion for Child Nutrition Programs.
Over the past year we’ve been working thru the learning curve for all users: districts, States, USDA staff, vendors and carriers
The ordering cycle is back to later and more traditional order due dates which we hope to shorten even more to allow
Recipients maximum flexibility and just in time delivery of USDA foods.
SY 13 ordering catalog completed January 2012
SY 13 Goals
To explore new procurement vehicles for Long Term Contracting
to have more flexible ordering timeframes
to ensure supply predictability

12. USDA Foods Help Schools Meet New Requirements:
Makes up approximately 15 to 20 percent of the food served
in each school lunch.
Provides a variety of healthy food choices, including fruits,
vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, dairy, and grains.
Includes a selection of more than 180 nutritious food items—
fresh, frozen, packaged, canned, dried, and bulk.
Meets rigorous food safety standards set by Federal
regulatory agencies and USDA’s two purchasing agencies –
the Agricultural Marketing Service and the Farm Service Agency.
Food Distribution knew this was coming and we’ve been aggressively improving our foods the past 5 years. We offer a good variety of canned, frozen, fresh and dried fruits. Canned products are packed in extra light syrup.
USDA offers unsweetened frozen blueberries, whole strawberries, and apple slices to help schools serve fruits without added sugars. However, industry needed additional time to develop a specification for other popular frozen fruits to eliminate added sugars. Thus, we issued a memo in conjunction with CND to allow schools time to use existing inventories.
Vegetables: Again, we offer canned, fresh and frozen options. In addition to the low and no sodium added canned and frozen vegetables offered, we have quite a selection of legumes, which are naturally fat free, high in fiber and nutrient dense.
We are also researching vegetables we can add to help you meet the new dark green and orange vegetable categories. Schools have asked us to look into frozen broccoli florets as a USDA Food offering, and we are currently checking on the availability of frozen spinach and squash.

13. USDA Foods Help Schools Meet New Requirements:
Fruits
Canned-extra light syrup
Frozen: developed new specification that decreases the amount of added sugars
Vegetables: ≤ 140 mg per ½ cup serving and no salt added products
Canned and dried beans
Exploring dark green and orange vegetables
Food Distribution knew this was coming and we’ve been aggressively improving our foods the past 5 years. We offer a good variety of canned, frozen, fresh and dried fruits. Canned products are packed in extra light syrup.
USDA offers unsweetened frozen blueberries, whole strawberries, and apple slices to help schools serve fruits without added sugars. However, industry needed additional time to develop a specification for other popular frozen fruits to eliminate added sugars. Thus, we issued a memo in conjunction with CND to allow schools time to use existing inventories.
Vegetables: Again, we offer canned, fresh and frozen options. In addition to the low and no sodium added canned and frozen vegetables offered, we have quite a selection of legumes, which are naturally fat free, high in fiber and nutrient dense.
We are also researching vegetables we can add to help you meet the new dark green and orange vegetable categories. Schools have asked us to look into frozen broccoli florets as a USDA Food offering, and we are currently checking on the availability of frozen spinach and squash.

14. USDA Foods Available Extra Light/Unsweetened Fruits
Apricots, Whole/Diced
Fresh Fruits – Apples, Oranges and Pears
Fruit Mix
Blueberries, Unsweetened
Peaches, Sliced/Diced
Strawberries, Unsweetened
Pears, Sliced/Diced/Halves
Dried Fruits (Variety)
Apple Slices – Unsweetened Canned/Frozen
¼ cup = ½ cup
New Specs for Frozen Fruit
Applesauce – Unsweetened
Less added sugars
Waiver for SY12/13 and SY13/14

15. USDA Foods Available Vegetables
Red–Orange
Tomato Products – Whole, Diced, Sauce, Paste
Sweet Potatoes – Canned, Fresh, Frozen, Bulk
Carrots – Frozen, Fresh Baby Carrots
Dark Green
Frozen Broccoli Florets are available in FY13 (5 lb bags). Spinach is also being considered.

16. USDA Foods Available Vegetables
Legumes
Variety of canned and dry Low sodium (140 mg/serving)
Starchy Vegetables
Reduced sodium, fat-free potato wedges, canned & frozen peas, corn, and fresh potatoes
Other
Green Beans

17. USDA Foods Help Schools Meet New Requirements:
Fresh Cut Program Expansion
Baby Carrots
Sliced Apples
Department of Defense (DoD)
Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program
Our Fresh Cut program expanded nationwide in SY 11-12, and continues to offer baby carrots and sliced apples in individual servings. We are looking at options to include other fresh fruits and vegetables through USDA’s distribution channels.
In addition, schools can use their planned assistance level to request fresh fruits and vegetables through DoD. This program has grown from $50 million in SY 2008, to nearly $80 million this school year.

18. USDA Foods Help Schools Meet New Requirements:
Whole grains: meet >50% requirement
-Pastas
-Brown Rice
-Tortillas
-Whole wheat flour
-Whole Kernel Corn for processing
Exploring other whole grains like white whole wheat flour products
We offer a variety of foods that meet or exceed the 51% whole grain requirement.
We’ve been working for several months on a white whole wheat flour, but based on some inconsistent results that SFAs shared regarding commercially available blends, we want to do more research before moving forward with white whole wheat product.
Check out our foods available list to see the breath of products we offer.

19. USDA Foods Help Schools Meet New Requirements:
Reducing Sodium:
All canned vegetables/tomatoes
Most meats and cheese products
Reducing Total Fat/Saturated Fats
Lean meats/poultry/fish
Reduced fat cheeses
Eliminate Trans fats: purchase only
zero trans fat products
USDA Foods will help you meet your sodium, saturated fat and transfat targets
Sodium: We have worked with industry to reduce the sodium level in canned beans, vegetables, and tomato products to 140 milligrams or less per ½ cup serving. Our canned kernel corn, diced tomatoes and frozen vegetables have no salt added. We have reduced the sodium level in process and blended cheeses by 40-50%, and we continue to offer reduced-sodium turkey ham, chicken fajitas, turkey taco filling which are 20-30% lower in sodium. We are exploring a reduced sodium pork ham.
Fat and Saturated Fat: For many years, we have offered lower fat meats including 97 percent lean ham, 95 percent lean turkey ham, a 95 percent lean beef patty, and a lower fat turkey taco filling. Our bulk pollock for further processing has been very popular and provides another low saturated fat option. By switching from a batter breaded chicken to oven roasted chicken, we reduced total fat and saturated fat by 25%. We offer reduced-fat cheddar, mozzarella and blended cheeses, low-fat bakery mix, and fat-free potato wedges to help schools make even more strides in reducing saturated fat. Shortening and butter were eliminated from our school offerings long ago.
USDA has purchased peanut butter, potato products, and bakery mix with no trans fats for some time, but now we are adding language to product specifications to ensure this is true.
Note: in SY 12 Vegetable oil contained some trans fat, and we are working with FSA to change the spec and purchase zero trans fat oil for SY 13.

20. USDA Foods Help Schools Meet New Requirements:
FNS is researching new products to help schools meet the new meal pattern requirements. We are considering:
• Bulk Pinto Beans for processing
• 1 oz. Low-sodium Cheese Stick
• Bulk Romaine Lettuce for processing
We want your feedback and ideas about these products and any others you’d like us to consider. us at:
USDA Foods will help you meet your sodium, saturated fat and transfat targets
Sodium: We have worked with industry to reduce the sodium level in canned beans, vegetables, and tomato products to 140 milligrams or less per ½ cup serving. Our canned kernel corn, diced tomatoes and frozen vegetables have no salt added. We have reduced the sodium level in process and blended cheeses by 40-50%, and we continue to offer reduced-sodium turkey ham, chicken fajitas, turkey taco filling which are 20-30% lower in sodium. We are exploring a reduced sodium pork ham.
Fat and Saturated Fat: For many years, we have offered lower fat meats including 97 percent lean ham, 95 percent lean turkey ham, a 95 percent lean beef patty, and a lower fat turkey taco filling. Our bulk pollock for further processing has been very popular and provides another low saturated fat option. By switching from a batter breaded chicken to oven roasted chicken, we reduced total fat and saturated fat by 25%. We offer reduced-fat cheddar, mozzarella and blended cheeses, low-fat bakery mix, and fat-free potato wedges to help schools make even more strides in reducing saturated fat. Shortening and butter were eliminated from our school offerings long ago.
USDA has purchased peanut butter, potato products, and bakery mix with no trans fats for some time, but now we are adding language to product specifications to ensure this is true.
Note: in SY 12 Vegetable oil contained some trans fat, and we are working with FSA to change the spec and purchase zero trans fat oil for SY 13.

21. HHFKA Section 242 Update
Examine SFAs’ access to accurate nutrition information for commercial products and USDA Foods; FoodConnect.gov
Explore ways for schools to create high quality specification for bids:
Provide recommendations for policy and funding to effect change to Congress
In the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, we’ve been tasked to help find solutions for some challenges that schools have had for years.
We are collaborating with several organizations to explore how we can give Schools access to accurate nutrition information for both USDA Foods and commercial products and help them with resources to create high quality bid specifications.
Regarding the model specification piece to HHFKA, FNS has partnered with Interflex, an Internet technology and services firm, which has developed a software platform that helps schools with foodservice bidding and builds model specifications for the products they serve in school meals. Interflex has in turn collaborated with Alliance for a Healthier Generation to add features based on its nutrition standards. On February 28, 2012, the BidAdvantage system went live at This service is free to schools. This will not be the only venue that we pursue to make model specifications available.
We are required to provide a report to Congress in June with our recommendations for new policy and funding to make these things happen.

22. FoodConnect.usda.gov
The USDA Food Connect website provides a one-stop information and communication resource for schools, other procurement groups, and the companies that supply them.
The web site allows food service professionals to search for, and identify, value-added food products produced from a variety of agricultural foods, the companies that offer the products, brokers that represent those companies, and distributors that have passed a warehouse sanitation review.

23. USDA Foods Tools for Schools
USDA Foods Toolkit Updated
Additional Bid Tools coming soon!
We are also continuing to build on the USDA Foods Toolkit on our website to create resources for you to build and promote your program. Keep checking back as we will be adding new resources in the coming months.
Stay tuned for additional resources regarding model specifications, too.
Team Nutrition Grant – letters of intent due March 15
Through these grants, States can provide training for NSLP or CACFP foodservice staff on implementing the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs), applying for the HealthierUS School Challenge, maximizing the use of USDA Foods, and meeting the requirements for the new meal patterns for school meals mandated by the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010.
States could apply for these funds to provide training to schools to help them understand the nutritional benefits of USDA Foods, including their contribution to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and how to maximize the use of USDA Foods in nutritious, low-cost school meals.

24. USDA Foods Questions/Information: Contact your state agency
Visit
We welcome your feedback and have an address for you to send any questions or comments.