Originally Posted by mom2many:
I just emailed my food monitor rep for the 2nd time regarding this. The mandatory training I attended was just last month and ONLY the 1% milk was discussed. They actually told us we could use flavorings to make the milk more appealing and said nothing about limiting juice.
I have been with this food program for over 20 years and they have always been on top of things and keeping us informed of changes and new policies, so when she told me the California Advocates are merely recommending this, I had no reason to doubt it.
I am anxious to hear what her response will be to all of this!
Okay...So here is the response I received from my food program rep after she contacted her State Reviewer.
The State Reviewer wrote to her and said:
"No, you are not missing a thing and you always do your research.
The USDA and the Assembly Bill are currently at odds. The CACFP regulations currently allow flavored milks but for licensing under the AB, flavored milks are not allowed. There are also some juice restrictions under the AB. As you know, the proposed CACFPmeal pattern will be coming out soon and we expect perhaps some closer alignment between the two but, of course, we don't know for sure. So ,yes, serving flavored milks is noncompliant with licensing requirements.
From this email, it appears that the State reviewer is not even really concerned with making sure the Food Program informs their providers in the training meetings. This is baffling to me!
She agrees there is a conflict between the Federal guidelines and what the State has deemed okay, but she never says anything about letting the providers know about this!