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Food and Nutrition report: meal participation up, sugar and sodium limits phased in
Summary
Food and Nutrition Director Laura Homadel and dietitian Yvonne Pottsko reported higher meal participation, outlined a roughly $13 million department budget, described recent cafeteria remodels and previewed phased federal sugar and sodium limits for school breakfasts and snacks.
The Martin County Food and Nutrition Department told the school board on May 6 that meal participation and some revenue measures rose this year even as the program absorbed pandemic-era federal and commodity funding losses.
Laura Homadel, director of Food and Nutrition, said the department is approximately self-sufficient with an operating budget of about $13,000,000 and roughly 180 employees. She reported average daily participation increases of about 10% for breakfast (about 3,900 daily breakfasts) and 13.2% for lunch (about 10,000 daily lunches), and said daily snacks averaged about 1,000.
The department also outlined recent losses and one-time hits: Homadel said the loss of Department of Defense commodity allocations and changes to reimbursement waivers reduced revenues, and she cited an unreimbursed shortfall from an extra 40-cent reimbursement waiver that she said was…
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