Purpose: This document should be used to help schools develop their own Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for leftovers and donating products.

Suggestions for Sharing and Donating Products:

Create a food sharing policy. A school food sharing guidance document which encourages schools and food banks to work together to collect whole and packaged school cafeteria surplus or leftover food and share it with the community.

Food share table guidance. The Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention have collaborated to revise the guidance titled “Food Sharing Tables – Guidance for Schools.” The Share table guidance is available on Child Nutrition and DHHS websites at the links below:

https://www.maine.gov/doe/schools/nutrition/programs/nslp https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/environmental-health/el/

Some important considerations when planning to reduce leftovers and waste:

• When purchasing, is there an option with less packaging?
• Will some of this product spoil before it is all used?
• Is there a less-perishable product that is available in bulk?
• Buy less, use good portion control methods, and use production records to view usage history.
• Implement Offer vs Serve for all grades and self-serve for students.
• Keep breakfast leftovers in the classroom for students to enjoy later, keeping in mind Food Safety guidelines.
• Provide longer lunch periods for students to socialize and eat.
• Schedule recess before lunch so students are hungry.
• Using techniques listed on Smarter Lunchrooms Self-Assessment Scorecard to help reduce food waste.

Despite careful planning, now you have leftovers. What to do?

• Determine what are the leftovers, via a use waste audit, and waste bins.
• Separate leftovers into categories: human consumption, perishable, nonperishable and other.
• Create a Share table using Maine share table guidelines for school lunch and breakfast and plan on how items can be shared in priority order. For example:

1. Students use should always be first, in café or classroom and utilize self-serve.
2. Set up outside the cafeteria to share with students and school personnel.
3. Encourage students to take home items that are non-perishable.
4. Donate items to soup kitchens and food pantries, utilizing their donation guidelines.

• Donate food scraps to farmers to feed animals, as per your SOP.
• Use food waste as composting for school gardens, as per you create SOP.
• Create a contribution table for lunch box/brown bag items donations. This is the same as a share table, but items brought from home can be included to create one common table.
• Use left overs for meal options the next day or as a la carte.
• Use leftovers as an ingredient in another dish. For example, prepare meatball subs from spaghetti and meatballs.
• Before long weekends/holidays/vacations, clean storage areas for food that will not be usable upon return. Place these on the share table or donate.
• As an outreach method, provide extra food that was unserved due to over-production to students not taking part in program.
• Create and maintain a plan for leftover unserved food. Depending on the food item(s), it should be used or donated.

How to develop guidelines for donating food and scraps:

 Collecting excess wholesome food after mealtimes to donate to food pantries is an excellent idea and supported by USDA and State of Maine. Donations must meet all Health Department guidelines as required by the Maine Food Code. Steps to take when creating your guidelines:

• Determine what is being donated to farmers or other pantries/kitchens.
• Pantries/kitchens donations are:
  • prepacked items
  • items on the share table
  • items never served and still meet food code safety guideline
• Farmer donations are:
  • food scraps from the trays
  • food scraps from lunch boxes/brown bags
  • food waste from kitchen
  • opened milk
• Items can be donated to a pantry located in the school if this is your first consideration.
• Develop a list of contacts and order of consideration, with farmers and pantries/kitchens being first.
• Establish boundaries of pickup times.
• Require donation recipients to bring a container, and notify them of any container requirements.
• Secure a location for pickup.
• Address any security issues, parking, which door, identification, etc.

Additional Information:

The US Department of Agriculture stresses the importance of careful menu planning and production practices in the National School Lunch/Breakfast Programs to reduce food waste and improve consumption of healthy foods. But even with careful planning, there can be excess food from time to time. The USDA strongly encourages schools to donate leftover foods to appropriate nonprofit institutions, provided this practice is not prohibited by State or local laws or regulations. Food donation has been a longstanding policy in all Child Nutrition Programs, as clarified in Memos from the Food and Nutrition Service.

USDA also offers programs to encourage controlling food waste such as “USDA Food Waste Challenge”

Schools should consider innovative new programs such as:

https://www.doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/Food/FoodWorkerandIndustry/SchoolF oodDonations

https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/sn/cnp022018.asp

References: SP 11-2012, CACFP 05-2012, SFSP 07-2012

Effective: Feb 1, 2020

As part of a federal requirement, the Maine Department of Education submits to the U.S. Department of Education teacher shortage areas for designation, based on collected data and public input.  The U.S. DOE annually designates teacher shortage areas for purposes of deferment of loan repayments or reductions of teaching obligation.

The Department intends to propose the following as K-12 teacher shortage areas during the 2020-2021 school year:

• Early Elementary (K-3)
• Early Childhood (Pre-K)
• Teacher of Students with Disabilities
• French
• Spanish
• Health
• Theater
• English – Second Language
• CTE (Firefighter/EMT, Automotive Mechanics, Truck, Automotive Body Repair, Diesel Engine Mechanic, Carpentry, Marine Maintenance, Electrician, Computer Info Services, Machine Toll Oper/Shop, Weld Braze Solder, Building Maintenance, Plumbing, Agricultural Prod. Gen, Allied Health, Nursing Asst.)

The Maine Department of Education is committed to working with our schools to most accurately represent the needs and shortage areas across our state. We recognize the diverse geographic regions and varying conditions that comprise our public education system, and strive for equitable and accurate representation.

To provide input regarding a specific shortage area, or to propose additional shortage areas, please contact Stephanie Fyfe at stephanie.fyfe@maine.gov or (207)-624-6751.

WHAT: To kick off the 5^th annual Read to ME Challenge, Maine Department of Education’s Commissioner Pender Makin will read to kindergarten-2 students at Lincoln School in Augusta.  Joining the Commissioner will be Senator Matthew Pouliot and Representative Donna Doore.  Following her reading of Full, Full, Full of LOVE, Commissioner Makin will issue a challenge to others to participate in the 2020 Read to ME Challenge campaign.  This simple but powerful campaign challenges adults to read to children for 15 minutes, and to capture that moment via a photo or a video, and then post it on social media and challenge others to do the same. The Read to ME Challenge will run for the month of February, leading up to Read Across America Day on March 2, 2019.

WHEN: Monday, February 3, 2020 at 8:45 am

WHERE:
Lincoln School
30 Lincoln St, Augusta, ME 04330
Media are asked to check in at the main office upon arrival to sign in, get a badge, and directions to the event.

WHO: Students in Kindergarten through 2^nd Grade (ages 5 – 8 years old), their teachers, school and district administrators, and Commissioner Pender Makin.

For more information, please contact Maine Department of Education’s Director of Communications Kelli Deveaux at kelli.deveaux@maine.gov or (207) 624-6747.

For those school administrative units (SAUs) that experience unplanned emergency or weather-related school closures, this guidance outlines the process of scheduling or rescheduling school days in order to meet the required number of instructional days, and for requesting Commissioner waivers. The Department encourages SAUs to build extra snow days into their calendar in advance.

As a reminder, the requirement in statute is 175 instructional days for students in grades K-11, and 170 days for high school seniors. An instructional day is defined as a school day during which both students and teachers are present, either in a school or in another setting. A day consists of a minimum of 3 hours, and an average 5 hours of instructional time (time devoted to the teaching-learning process, not including extra-curricular activities, lunchtime, or recess) over any two-week period.

Rescheduling instructional time

Acceptable methods to reschedule classes include the following:

• • Rescheduling or shortening scheduled vacation
  • Postponing the scheduled school closing date
  • Conducting classes on weekends
  • Extending the school day:
    • Under Chapter 125 Section 6.02, subsection C, SAUs may schedule a one-hour extension of the school day for up to 25 days in a school year; 5 one-hour extensions may be counted as an additional school day. It is important for school boards that vote on revised calendars to notify the Commissioner’s office, particularly for SAUs that choose to extend the school day, as this option will alter the attendance counts for the unit.
    • A predetermined early/late release/start day may be extended; the extended time may count as an additional school day provided it equals 5 hours, as outlined above.
    • An extended day should not be greater than one hour more than a regular-length school day.
      
  • Developing alternative ways to make up school days missed due to weather or emergency closures, as long as they are incorporated into a plan that is approved by the Commissioner.
    • Plans will be considered by the Commissioner upon receipt and review of plan details.
  • Piloting a remote school day. No more than one remote learning pilot day may count currently toward the 175 instructional days required by law. SAUs are encouraged to share remote day experiences with the Department and other SAUs.
    • • Districts participating in this pilot complete[d] a short application, attesting to the assurances below:
        • • access and equity for all students in implementation of the day;
          • provision of FAPE for students with disabilities;
          • provision of free breakfast and lunch for qualifying students;
          • school board approval, and staff, family and community support:
          • honoring of all other existing legal requirements, including regional school calendar requirements under 20-A M.R.S. 4801 2-A
  • Important information: for schools that choose to pilot a remote day, or to extend the school day in lieu of attending additional days, please be aware that SAUs that participate in federal reimbursement for USDA food funding may be affected, and there is currently no related assistance for SAUs. Although it appears there may be future developments regarding this issue, currently USDA food funding is calculated based on the number of lunches served in the previous year. Therefore, if the SAU has less lunches served due to extending school days rather than going extra days in the 2019-2020 school year, it will result in less federal reimbursement for the meal program in the 2020-2021 school year. In addition, it is important to understand that, currently, implementing a remote school day may conflict with commitments under the USDA food program.For further information about the Child Nutrition Program, contact Walter Beasley, Maine DOE Director of Child Nutrition at (207) 624-6875 or Walter.Beesley@maine.gov.

  Requesting waivers

  In Chapter 125: Basic Approval Standards: Public Schools and School Administrative Units Section 6.01, subsections C (1) and (2), regulations state that the commissioner may waive the minimum school year requirements upon submission of a written request from the school board to the commissioner, and that waivers will be granted after school officials have exhausted all reasonable avenues for making up lost school days, and only in extraordinary circumstances. Waiver requests will be accepted in the Spring, when the danger of cancellations has lessened. There is no need for the school board to send a waiver request to the Commissioner unless the SAU cannot make up enough days to equal the required 175.

  For further information about rescheduling school days or requesting waivers, please view the Department’s updated School Approval Waivers page.

  For further questions or to notify the Department of the intent to file for a waiver please contact Pamela Ford-Taylor, Maine DOE School Enrollment Specialist at (207) 624-6617.

The amount of time young people spend in school provides an excellent opportunity to help improve the health status of children and adolescents. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed the School Health Profiles (SHP) as a tool to measure progress in the implementation of school policies and practices. Principals and Lead Health education Teachers in middle and high schools are given the survey every even year. The last survey was conducted in 2018.

Maine’s efforts in health education and physical education curriculum, aligned to the Maine Learning Results, have led to improvements in several major adolescent risk behaviors. As two examples, school programs have played a part in significantly reducing adolescent smoking and in increasing sexual abstinence. The next challenge will be to reduce use of electronic vapor products.

Maine has had an excellent response rate since the inception of the survey in 1996, and are thankful to all principals and lead health teachers who participate.

The 2020 School Health Profile (SHP) survey will be completed entirely online this year. Your participation and support in completing this year’s survey is greatly appreciated, as it is vital to the improvement of health-related policies and practices in Maine’s schools, and ultimately the health of students.