As a compliant participant in USDA’s National School Lunch Program, Poudre School District receives donated entitlement food money to be used only on a set list of food items preapproved by the USDA (e.g. cheese, beef, chicken, turkey, eggs, peanut butter). The USDA determines the value of donated foods each school year (July 1st through June 30th) based on each lunch meal served by schools participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). The value for SY 2019 was $0.2525 per reimbursable lunch meal. Poudre School District received $635,229.00 in donated food money for meals served in SY 2020. That money can only be used to purchase specific foods from specific vendors awarded contracts by USDA through the State bid process. The money cannot be cashed out, carried over, or be used for any other use by Poudre School District. Based on the master list of approved items, Poudre School District purchases items from the awarded vendors specifically based on nutritional quality and customer preferences.

Attached for Board review are the 2018-2019 Colorado Department of Human Services contract; the 2020-2021 USDA Foods Available List; State of Colorado IFB #2018000153; and the Catalog Worksheet for USDA Foods. 

The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program operating in public schools, nonprofit private schools, and residential childcare institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children during each school day. The Food Distribution Division of USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, coordinates the distribution of USDA food. These programs support American agricultural producers by providing cash reimbursements for meals served in schools and other child nutrition institutions.

USDA began the processing program in 1958 to permit State Distributing Agencies and eligible Recipient Agencies to maximize the use of donated USDA Foods. Most of the USDA foods processed through these programs go to schools participating in the National School Lunch Program.

Under this program, State and Recipient Agencies conduct and award an Invitation for Bid (IFB) to contract with commercial food processors to convert raw bulk USDA Foods into more convenient, ready-to-use end products. In Colorado, this is done under a State master agreement controlled and managed by the Colorado distribution agency. The distributing agency enters into an agreement with the processor with set products and only designated eligible recipient agencies may purchase end products from the processor. The eligible recipient agencies (Poudre School District) cannot deviate from those products or vendors for USDA Foods. In the 2019 fiscal year, PSD purchased products under this program from the following vendors:  Jennie-O, JTM, Land O’Lakes, Michael’s Foods, Smucker’s, Tasty Brand, and Tyson Foods.