Ohio's Office of Nutrition issued a bulletin for the week of Sept. 7-11 that gathers guidance for school meal program operators on the Community Eligibility Provision, application processing, and training.
The office scheduled three CEP miniseries sessions: Sept. 17 on meal counting, claiming and student fee waivers; Oct. 8 on redistricting when schools are added, merged or closed during a four-year CEP cycle; and Nov. 5 on verification and the required Verification Report in the Claims Reimbursement and Reporting System.
On local food sourcing, USDA's Food and Nutrition Administration announced TA 01-2026, a memo on resources for procuring local foods in school year 2026-2027. The office describes it as part of the Harvest to Hallways campaign and says it supports Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins' stance on local procurement.
For CRRS, the office says incomplete sections block submission. It lists expectations for site applications, attendance figures for 2025-2026, adult meal pricing, checklist confirmation, unsaved forms flagged by red arrows, and a building-level food safety inspection report.
CEP schools, the office states, may not collect USDA free and reduced meal applications and instead should use the Ohio Household Form. Schools not establishing a new base year must upload base year forms and confirm submission to the state agency.
Other items address online training certificates that show a prior-year date for up to 365 days, and an annual Confirmation Review Waiver that schools must request in CRRS for 2026-2027.
Scheduled sessions include a Sept. 24 USDA Foods budget town hall, verification process trainings in September, verification report trainings in November, December and January, and self-paced online courses.