School Nutrition Partners has partnered with Alta Public Schools SFA to provide NSLP and Supper programs to other California public schools without those schools having to become their own School Food Authority (SFA) or get approved to serve supper meals. Alta Public Schools serves as the sponsoring SFA and School Nutrition Partners manages the program.
- Participating charter and public schools will be able to offer meals to their students without the heavy burden of ensuring compliance with the large number of CDE requirements.
- Schools in this program do not have to worry about going through the approval process, procurement, keeping financial records, paying vendors and staff, processing applications and verifications, and so forth.
- The goal of the program is to provide a service that is as uncomplicated as possible for participating schools, with as little financial risk as possible, so that charter school leaders and staff can spend their time educating students.
Sponsorship vs. own SFA
There are many reasons why schools choose to join a sponsor program versus starting their own SFA. The biggest reason is financial liability. Schools not only struggle to manage the program’s compliance, but they also experience negative cash balances in their meal programs. In addition, it is not uncommon for schools to be have findings in their meal program audits that result in large financial penalties. When a school is under a sponsorship program, the financial liability is carried by the sponsoring SFA, not the school. Schools enjoy providing nutritious meals to its students without having to manage compliance or take a financial risk.
Why choose School Nutrition Partners’ sponsor program
Our sponsor program is different in that we consider a sponsor school’s students, our students as well. Therefore, our goal is not only to provide healthy meals to students, but to also meet and interact with the students, to understand their likes, dislikes and needs; and to provide them with holistic nutritional services. These services include nutritional lessons for each grade level, nutritional workshops for parents, promotional posters, and partnerships with local farm to school organizations. We work closely with partnering schools to create goals for the program, such as, increasing student participation and increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
California schools that are already participating in the NSLP program but would like to provide nutritious supper meals to students in their after school program can participate in the sponsored CACFP (supper) program.
At this time, this program is only available in California, if you are an approved SFA in another state and would like to sponsor other schools, please contact us for more information.