CN Agency and SFA Directors, Business Managers, Superintendents, Menu Planners, School Nutrition Managers, School Liaisons, and Principals - SLT

E3 Fruit and Vegetable Questions and
Meal Pattern Crediting Report (Groups 2 & 3)

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OMB Control Number: 0584-XXXX

Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX

EMS Fruit and Vegetable Questions and
Meal Pattern Crediting Report for Menu Planner

Note: After the Menu Survey has been completed in the EMS for a given school, a nutrition coder will review the completed forms in the EMS and follow-up with the SNM on critical missing data. The nutrition coder will then generate the Meal Pattern Crediting Report, which will list all unique foods reported on the Reimbursable Foods Forms (for both lunch and breakfast) across the target week. The nutrition coder will then send the menu planner a link to the EMS to complete, for each sampled school, a series of questions about fruits and vegetables as well as the Meal Pattern Crediting Report. The new questions and the Meal Pattern Crediting Report are shown below. We have not included the SNMCS-I questions that asked about whether students are allowed to select multiple servings of the same fruit or vegetable. These data were not used in the SNMCS-I analysis (at the request of FNS) and will not be used in the SNMCS-II analysis so that comparability can be maintained.

Fruit and Vegetable Questions

The following questions ask about the maximum number of fruit and vegetable items students are allowed to choose as part of reimbursable meal. Please note that we are not asking about how many items students have to take for a meal to be reimbursable, rather what they are allowed to take. If there is no limit on servings of fruits or vegetables, please check “unlimited.” If the maximum number of fruit or vegetable servings allowed varies depending on the day or the serving line/food station a student uses, please enter the highest number allowed.

1. For reimbursable lunches, what is the maximum number of servings of fruits and vegetables (including 100% juice) that students are allowed to take?

	MARK ONE RESPONSE PER ROW
	MAXIMUM NUMBER OF SERVINGS STUDENTS CAN TAKE AT LUNCH
a. Fruits, including 100% juice	| | | servings	□ Unlimited
b. Vegetables, including 100% juice	| | | servings	□ Unlimited

2. For reimbursable breakfasts, what is the maximum number of servings of fruits and vegetables combined (including 100% juice) that students are allowed to take?

	MARK ONE RESPONSE
	MAXIMUM NUMBER OF SERVINGS STUDENTS CAN TAKE AT BREAKFAST
a. Fruits and/or vegetables, including 100% juice	| | | servings	□ Unlimited

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0584-XXXX. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 90 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. All information will be kept private under the Privacy Act to the extent allowed by law. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Policy Support, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 1014, Alexandria, VA 22302, ATTN: PRA (0584-xxxx). Do not return the completed form to this address.

Instructions for Completing the Meal Pattern Crediting Report

This report includes all unique foods prepared and served in daily lunch and breakfast menus during the target week for the school listed. We need you to complete this report to provide information about how the foods were credited in the planned menus. Instructions for completing the report are provided below. Click the “View Example” button to see examples of how to enter information.

1. For each food item and portion size listed, please enter—in cups or ounce (oz) equivalents—the creditable amount of each meal pattern food group contributed by one portion.

2. If a food item contributes to more than one meal pattern group or vegetable subgroup, be sure to enter the amount contributed to all applicable meal pattern groups.

3. In some cases, the meal pattern contribution will be the same as the portion size, but this will not be true for all menu items or menu items that contribute to more than one meal pattern group.

4. Note that some fruits and vegetables do not credit the same amount as the volume served (for example, 1 cup of a food item does not always credit as 1 cup). Below are some examples:

• Dried fruit credits as twice the volume served, so a 1/2-cup portion size would credit as 1 cup of fruit.

• Raw leafy greens (for example, raw spinach) credit as half the volume served, so a 2-cup portion size would credit as 1 cup of dark green vegetables.

5. When a food item contains grains, enter the oz. equivalent that it contributes in the “Grains” column. Check the box in the “Whole Grain-Rich” column if the food item meets the whole grain-rich criteria. If you are unsure whether a food item is whole grain-rich, please refer to the following USDA guidance:

https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/WholeGrainResource.pdf

6. If a food item does not contribute to any meal pattern groups, check the box in the “Not Creditable” column.

7. The report has shading in some columns to indicate that the meal pattern group(s) is not usually applicable to the specific item reported. You can, however, enter values in the shaded cells if needed.

8. For items prepared from a recipe, the school was asked to provide recipe information. You can view the recipes that were submitted by clicking on the “View School Recipes” button at the top of the report.

9. For self-serve or made-to-order food bars, enter the meal pattern contribution for “1 serving” from the bar. The school completed a form that listed all of the foods offered on the bar. You can view the food bars by clicking on the “View Self-Serve/Made-to-Order Food Bar Forms” button at the top of the report.

10. Note that fluid milk offerings are excluded from this report.

M eal Pattern Crediting Report for Lunch and Breakfast

SFA Name:

School Name:

Target Week:

Unique Foods Reported on Daily Lunch and Breakfast Menus

Meal Pattern Contributions

Food Item

Portion Size

Food Description

Manufacturer/Brand Name & Product Code

USDA Food

Recipe

Fruits (cups)

Vegetables (cups)

Meats/Meat Alternates (oz eq)

Grains (oz eq)

Whole Grain-Rich

Not Creditable

Dark Green

Red/ Orange

Legumes

Starchy

Other

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