Frequently Asked Questions

Summer Food Service Program

What is the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)?
What is a sponsor?
What types of organizations can sponsor the program?
What types of sites are approved for operation?
How are meals provided?
What must be served for meals to qualify?
Which meals can be served?
How is a sponsor reimbursed?
What are the meal reimbursement rates for 2008?
What about record keeping?
What are a sponsor's administrative responsibilities?
What about monitoring the program?
Will the program be reviewed?

More Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)?
The SFSP is a program administered by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (MDHSS) and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The SFSP provides nutritious meals to needy children age 18 and under during the summer months when school lunch and breakfast programs are not operating.  The program also provides meals to individuals over age 18 who are determined by a state educational agency to be mentally or physically disabled, and who participate in a school program for the mentally or physically disabled.

SFSP Sponsors receive financial and technical support to operate and administer the program.

What is a sponsor?
A sponsor is an organization that agrees to operate the SFSP.

Sponsors accept final administrative and financial responsibility for all sites under their jurisdiction.  (A site is the location where children are served meals.)

What types of organizations can sponsor the program?

• Schools, both public and private, who participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP)
• Local, county, district, or state government agencies
• Residential summer camps
• National Youth Sports Programs (NYSP)
• Private nonprofit (PNP) organizations

What types of sites are approved for operation?
A site can be anywhere that is accessible to and accommodates children and eligible disabled adults, and has the necessary facilities to serve meals.  It can be indoors or outdoors. For example, a school cafeteria, park, or church could be a site.

• Open Site – serves a designated area where at least half of the children are eligible for free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).
• Enrolled Site – at least half of the enrolled participants at the site are eligible based on completed Income Eligibility Applications.
• Residential Summer Camp – a residential camp that offers regularly scheduled food service as part of an organized program for enrolled children.
• Nonresidential Day Camp – a nonresidential camp sponsored by a private nonprofit organization that offers organized cultural or recreational programs for enrolled children between meal services.
• Migrant Feeding Site – food service sites which primarily serve children from migrant families with regularly scheduled meal services.

How are meals provided?
A sponsor may provide meals to participants by:

• Preparing meals in a central kitchen or in an on-site kitchen at each location; or
• Obtaining complete meals from a vendor; which could be a public agency, a private nonprofit organization, a school district, or a commercial food service management company.

What must be served for meals to qualify?
To qualify for reimbursement, meals must meet specific meal pattern requirements and must contain the required quantities of each component.

The four meal components are:  milk; vegetable, fruit, or juice; grains or bread; and meat or meat alternate.

• Breakfast – milk; vegetable, fruit, or juice; grain or bread
• Lunch and Supper – milk; two different vegetables and/or fruits; meat or meat alternative; grain or bread
• Snack – Any two of the four components

Which meals can be served?
The type of site operated determines the number and type of meal services that are approved.

Sites may be approved for one or two types of meals; for example, lunch only, breakfast and lunch, or lunch and a snack.

Residential and nonresidential camps and sponsors of programs for children of migrant workers may be approved to serve either three meals or two meals and one snack.

How is a sponsor reimbursed?
Sponsors receive reimbursement for costs of running a program such as food, kitchen labor, nonfood supplies, administrative labor, office supplies, and related travel costs.

Reimbursement is based on claims that are submitted to MDHSS.  The amount reimbursed is equal to the sum of the number of eligible meals served to children times the current program rate.

What are the meal reimbursement rates for 2008?

What about record keeping?
Full and accurate records must be kept of allowable program costs as well as the number of program meals served to support each claim for reimbursement.

All of these records must be maintained for three years after the end of the fiscal year in which the program is operating.

These records must be made available upon request to federal and state administering agencies for audit and review purposes.

What are a sponsor's administrative responsibilities?
Administrative responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Attend any training required by the state administering agency, train all personnel involved in the SFSP, and keep records of all training conducted;
• Ensure sites are properly monitored, and that they comply with the civil rights requirements;
• Keep full and accurate records to substantiate allowable program costs, including daily records of the number of meals received and meals served; and
• Submit claims for reimbursement.

What about monitoring the program?
Personnel will be needed to monitor sites regularly and document the review.  Monitors make certain sites operate according to program guidelines and requirements, communicate site problems, and ensure correction of problems.

Will the program be reviewed?
Participants will probably receive an administrative review by the MDHSS and USDA during the course of the operations that will include both the office and at least one site.

Records must be made available for the administering agency review and corrective actions must be taken as required by the administering agency.

Results of an administrative review may affect the amount of reimbursement a program will receive.

The review may involve assessing how the claim for reimbursement is prepared and looking at the records the organization maintains.  It will also include a look at site operations – observing the meal service operation and the record keeping of one or more sites.