Title: USDA COMMODITY PROGRAMS UPDATE
1USDA COMMODITY PROGRAMS UPDATE
Cathie McCullough, Director Food Distribution
Division, USDA
Legislative Action Conference, March 5, 2007
2SY 08 Foods Available - Meat
3SY 08 Foods Available - Poultry
4SY 08 Foods Available Fresh
5SY 08 Foods Available - Fruit
6SY 08 Foods Available - Vegetables
7SY 08 Foods Available Group B
8SY 08 Foods Available
9SY 2008 Foods Available - CP
10 IMPROVING COMMODITIES
- Enhance the foods available list to support the
nutritional needs of recipients - Improve customer appeal of commodities
- Provide product in more convenient form
11IMPROVING COMMODITIES
- To help meet recommendations from the
- 2005 DGAs
- Offering more whole wheat/grain items for
- SY 2008
- Whole wheat macaroni and spaghetti
- Brown rice, Quick-cooking brown rice
- Trans Fats
- Reviewing commodities for trans fats levels
- Requiring USDA commodity labels to address trans
fats - Working to eliminate trans fats from frozen
potato products
12IMPROVING COMMODITIES
- Lowering sugar
- USDA offers canned fruits packed in only juice
and water, juice, or light syrup (exception
is apple slices packed in water only) - No canned fruits are offered in heavy syrup
- Changed spec to require unsweetened applesauce
for schools and institutions - Lowering sodium content
- All canned vegetables meet FDAs
- Healthy standard for sodium
- ( 480 mg per serving)
13IMPROVING COMMODITIES
- OTHER IMPROVEMENTS
- Long-Term Contracts for Turkey
- Test buys for whole turkey, roast, hams, deli
breast, and deli breast smoked - Regular bi-weekly purchases for turkey items will
continue - Reducing the fat in processed poultry products
- Will allow processors to substitute meat, either
dark or white, for fat and skin during processing
at a 1 to 10 ratio - More flexibility to lower fat content in end
products
14COMMODITY FACT SHEETS GUIDANCE
- Updating school commodity fact sheets
- Surveyed States/schools for feedback
- Fact Sheets to be completed Spring 2007
- Developed label guidance
- 2 Fact Sheets on trans fats and allergens
-
15CFN Home Page
www.commodityfoods.usda.gov
16CFN Website Migration
- In the very near future, the look, feel, and
organization of the CFN website will
change. - The new site will contain all the information
housed on the current site and more! - Please remember to reset your internet
bookmarks since a few of the current URLs or
addresses within the site may change when
the new site is launched. - The new site is expected to be launched
by May 1, 2007 or sooner. Well let you know.
www.commodityfoods.usda.gov
17Sneak Preview
www.commodityfoods.usda.gov/
18FY 2008 Farm Bill Proposals
- Provide an additional 500 million over 10 years
in FV purchases for schools - Increase the overall Sec 32 FV purchase minimum
going to all domestic commodity programs by 2.75
billion over 10 years
19REWRITE OF 7 CFR Part 250
- Drafting 2 final rules based on comments received
during summer - 2006. They address
- Food service management companies
- Commodity processing
- Also drafting a proposed rule addressing
delivery, distribution, inventory and other
issueswe welcome your comments when published!
20TRAINING AND INFORMATION SHARING
- Training in 2006
- State SNA meetings
- Regional and State meetings
- Industry/processor meetings
- 2006 LAC and ANC
- Training in 2007
- LAC Pre-Conference Session
- ACDA, March 2007 (Orlando, FL)
- FD-101 for States, May 2007 (Alexandria, VA)
- Commodity Track, July 2007 ANC (Chicago)
- We have a new training coordinator!
21DoD Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program
22 DoD Fresh FV Program
- DoD Fresh Program is an OPTION that States may
OFFER to schools (not required to offer) - Since 2002 Farm Bill requires 50 million of
entitlement to be spent annually through 2007 - The Program is intended to provide SOME/MORE
fresh produce for schools - Section 411 funds MAY BE USED to buy more DoD
produce in addition to the above entitlement
purchases
23DoD Today
- 47 States, DC, VI, PR, Guam will participate in
- SY 07-08
- PA, KS, DE are not setting aside commodity
entitlement dollars for this option - About 20 States have chosen to utilize Section
- 4 11 funds in addition to or in lieu of
entitlement dollars - SY 06-07 deliveries were delayed until Sept 06 as
FNS switched to fiscal year allocation system
(this system will continue)
24DoD Changes
- New Procurement System - using Long-Term
Contracts - Schools will have 24/7 access to FFAVORS
(web-based ordering system) - Some DoD staff will remain in field to handle
customer support complaint issues - FFAVORS is expected to improve monitoring of
orders at all levels
25ECOS
26ECOS Enhancements
- Enhancements for Co-ops
- Co-ops can roll-up member orders into full
truckloads, or combine them with other ECOS users - Co-ops can access information on commodities
available, entitlement, requisitions, delivery
orders, etc. - Co-ops can manage orders for their members like
the State does for recipient agencies
27Questions?
Cathie McCullough cathie.mccullough_at_fns.usda.gov P
h 703-305-2680