School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study - II, Outlying Areas Cost Study Feasibility Assessment

APPENDIX G

SFA Director Recruiting Email

This page has been left blank for double-sided copying.

Note: The burden associated with gathering and submitting the requested documents is included in the disclosure statement on Appendix A.

OMB Control No.: 0584-0606

Expiration Date: 03/31/2019

Dear [SFA Director Name]:

This email is to request your assistance with the Outlying Areas Cost Study Feasibility Assessment. As you may remember from the correspondence the State Child Nutrition agency recently sent you, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service has contracted with Mathematica Policy Research to assess the extent of information available about the costs of producing reimbursable meals for the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. This study is important because an accurate assessment of meal costs in [Alaska/Hawaii/Guam/Puerto Rico/the U.S. Virgin Islands] could help adjust per-meal reimbursement rates in your [State/Territory]. Today I am contacting you with three requests.

1. Scheduling an interview

I’d like to schedule a telephone interview between [Date] and [Date], 2018. The purpose of this interview is to find out about the records your SFA keeps for meal production and planning, food prices, non-reimbursable foods, the staff who work on food service activities, and indirect costs. The interview might take up to [IF HI OR USVI: 1.5/IF AK, GU, OR PR: three] hours. Your school district’s business manager might know some of the information we are trying to find out. Please invite him or her to the first 90 minutes of the interview. Below, I listed three potential dates and times for the interview. I am happy to schedule a different time if none of these is convenient for you and the business manager. I will call in a few days to finalize a date and time.

Date	Time

2. Selecting schools for interviews

Second, you may remember from the correspondence that we may also interview school nutrition managers (SNMs) and principals in your SFA. We would like to interview staff from schools with different characteristics. We need your help selecting three schools that have some variation. Please consider schools that vary in whether they: (1) have staff who are not in the food service department but work on food service activities, (2) purchase any foods directly versus all SFA-level purchasing, (3) prepare food onsite versus receive meals from a central kitchen or a production kitchen, (4) sell competitive foods versus do not sell competitive foods. The schools should also include an elementary, middle, and high school, if possible, and be willing to participate in the interviews.

When I call in a few days, I will ask you for the contact information for the SNM and principal in the three schools. If a central kitchen prepares school meals for any schools in your SFA, I will also ask you for the contact information for the SNM of the central kitchen. You may also reply to this email with the contact information for the principals and SNMs of the schools by filling in the below table. Please gather the production records, personnel records, and non-reimbursable foods sales records described below for these schools.

School name and mailing address	SNM name, email, phone number [IF PR: , and language preference]	Principal name, email, phone number [IF PR: , and language preference]
Central kitchen (if applicable)		N/A

3. Gathering documents

Finally, we would like to review some of your SFA’s records before the interview. When I call you, we can determine the most convenient, secure way for you to share the documents with us (for example, uploading files to a secure site or mailing them to us). Please start to gather the following records now. Gathering and submitting the documents could take up to [IF HI OR USVI: one hour/IF AK, GU, OR PR: 1.5 hours]. Your district’s business manager may have access to some of the records. [IF HI OR USVI: If your SFA does not maintain some of these documents but the State Child Nutrition agency does, we will request the documents from the State.]

• Audited and unaudited revenue and expenditure statements for the SFA from fiscal year 2016–2017 or, if those are not available, audited and unaudited revenue and expenditure statements for 2015–2016.

• Completed daily production records that document the foods that were prepared for and served in reimbursable meals each day for a typical school week for the selected schools (see above).

• Documentation that identifies the cost categories and support functions included in the district’s indirect cost rate(s) or cost allocation plan(s), such as documentation submitted to the State Department of Education for approval.

• If applicable, a copy of your SFA’s cycle menu(s).

• If applicable, a copy of your SFA’s contract with your food service management company.

• If applicable, a copy of the union contract for food service employees.

In addition, please gather examples of the following:

• Records of food purchases that show the item, unit size, price per unit, and quantity obtained. Please gather an example from each of your SFA’s suppliers, including all vendors, USDA Foods, and, if applicable, DoD Fresh. These records could be invoices, delivery slips, or monthly vendor statements.

• Standardized recipes for foods prepared from scratch.

• Records for district personnel or personnel in the selected schools (see above) who work on food service activities and are paid out of the food service account, and records for district and school personnel who work on food service activities but are paid out of the district account rather than the food service account. These records should show job title, salary, hours worked, amount of leave time, and amount of time spent on food service activities. Please redact any names, Social Security Numbers, or other personally identifiable information from these records.

• If applicable, records of non-reimbursable foods sales (for example, adult meals or items that are sold a la carte in the cafeteria or elsewhere in school, such as in vending machines, school stores, food carts, or snack bars).

This assessment is not an audit. Your participation is mandatory under Section 28 of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act.

Please email or call me if you have any questions about the Outlying Areas Cost Study Feasibility Assessment. I can be reached at [Email] or [Telephone Number]. Thank you in advance for your help and cooperation.

Sincerely,

[Recruiter Name]