The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has established minimum professional standards requirements for school nutrition professionals who manage and operate the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.The standards are another key provision of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 and aim to institute minimum education standards for new state and local school nutrition directors, as well as annual training standards for all school nutrition professionals. Click on the link above to learn more and access resources available to you and your school district.
What Every Local Educational Agency (LEA) Needs to Know
What Every School Food Authority (SFA) Needs to Know
Hiring and Competencies, Knowledge and Skills Resources for School Nutrition Professionals
Training Resources
- USDA Professional Standards Training Database
- This site allows school nutrition staff to search for training that meets their learning needs. Each listing contains information about the training, including how to access, developer, date, learning objectives covered and more.
- OSN Resource Lending Library
- The CDE OSN houses several video-based resources available for employee professional development and training. This document contains video descriptions and instructions for borrowing the videos and related training materials.
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- Supervised practice with the CDE Office of School Nutrition will expose interns to management practices in school food service operations. Interns can complete competencies in community, food service, management and nutrition education concentrations during supervised practice. For information on partnering with the Office of School Nutrition on a dietetic internship rotation, visit the Dietetic Internship Rotation webpage.
- Learning Objectives
- Training to meet professional standards is divided into four key areas: Nutrition, Operations, Administration and Communications/Marketing. Each key area has several key topics and specific training subjects with objectives that should be met in the training. Trainings should meet one or more of the training objectives listed in this resource.
- School Nutrition Association (SNA)
- USDA Professional Standards Hub
- Resources for meeting the training and hiring standards
Rule Summaries
USDA Memo
- SP 38-2016s Questions and Answers on the Final Rule "Professional Standards for State and Local School Nutrition Programs Personnel as Required by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (May 26, 2016)
- SP 39-2015 Questions and Answers on the Final Rule "Professional Standards for State and Local School Nutrition Programs Personnel as Required by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (June 26, 2015)
