The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce’s Office of Nutrition used its Oct. 26–30 school nutrition bulletin to restate several operating rules for school food authorities and to flag near-term deadlines and training.
On meal claims, the office said Ohio bars combining claims across locations. A separate claim is required for each site where meals are served, and sponsors that have filed multiple locations under one site should contact their assigned Education Program Specialist.
For adult meals, the bulletin said an SFA may choose to provide no-cost meals to adults who work directly in school nutrition operations and administration, with those costs chargeable to the nonprofit food service account. Such meals are not reimbursable. The guidance excludes custodians, teachers and other adults not paid by the food service program. If one school or district serves meals for another and seeks reimbursement, both entities must sign an Alternate SFA Arrangement, which transfers compliance responsibility to the reimbursed SFA.
The office set Nov. 1 as the completion date for the 700-Level Resource Management section for SFAs scheduled for a 2026-2027 administrative review. Missing it triggers a Comprehensive Resource Management Review, the bulletin said; affected SFAs were emailed in September. Procurement reviews occur in the same school year.
The bulletin also reminded sponsors that households must be allowed to choose which programs receive student eligibility information. Consent must be program-specific; one blanket waiver is not allowed.
Training dates include an Oct. 29, 9 a.m. Buy American and procurement webinar, which the office said meets USDA’s one-hour annual procurement training requirement, and a Nov. 5 CEP verification session from 2:30 to 3 p.m. Online child nutrition courses are available, with certificates requiring an account.