Posted February 4, 2014
The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) recently released a proposed rule which would create minimum hiring and training standards for school nutrition professionals, according to a Farm Futures article available here. The proposed rule is available here.
Dr. Janey Thornton, Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Service, said the proposed standards “will ensure that all school nutrition professionals meet the same national requirements as they prepare healthy meals served in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.”
The rules are part of the Health Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010, which requires the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a program of mandatory education, training, and certification for all school nutrition directors responsible for the management of a school food authority.
The proposal would: “Create minimum hiring standards for school food authority directors based on a school district’s size; establish minimum hiring standards for State directors of school nutrition and State distributing agencies; and require minimum annual training for all new and current school nutrition professionals,” according to a USDA blog post here.
For more information on nutrition programs, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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