Overview
School Nutrition Programs | Program Guidance | Forms | Resources | Nutrition Education
What’s in a Meal: National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program Meal Patterns for Grades K-12
The CSDE's What’s in a Meal training program is a series of recorded modules that provide comprehensive guidance on complying with the meal patterns for grades K-12 in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), and Seamless Summer Option (SSO) of the NSLP.
Target audience: This training program is intended for school food service professionals in the NSLP, SBP, and SSO, including food service directors, managers, and staff.
Knowledge check and score: After viewing each module, participants will complete a brief knowledge check that will display a score after all questions are complete.
Training documentation: Participants may print their knowledge check score to document participation in each module.
Accessing the videos: The training module videos are housed in Qualtrics. Click on each module title below to register and view the video.
Professional development training hours: School nutrition personnel may use the CSDE's What's in a Meal training program to count toward the annual training hours required by the USDA’s Professional Standards for School Nutrition Program Professionals. For more information, refer to the CSDE’s Professional Standards Topics and Training Hours for the What's in a Meal Training Modules.
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1: Introduction to Training (length 17:19) Updated for School Year 2024-25: This module introduces the What’s in a Meal training program, provides an overview of the modules and training objectives, identifies common acronyms and abbreviations, and describes key resources for guidance and training. |
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2: Introduction to School Meal Patterns (length 42:37) Updated for School Year 2024-25: This module introduces the NSLP and SBP meal patterns, provides an overview of the federal legislation for school meals, identifies the requirements for food-based menu planning (including meal components, servings, and meal pattern requirements), and describes resources for guidance and training on the school meal patterns. |
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3: National School Lunch Program (NSLP) Meal Pattern (length 20:35) Updated for School Year 2024-25: This module reviews the lunch meal pattern requirements, including the daily and weekly servings of each meal component, the weekly requirements for vegetable subgroups and whole grain-rich (WGR) foods, the weekly limits for grain-based desserts and juice, the optional meal pattern for grades K-8, the weekly dietary specifications, and key resources for guidance and training on the NSLP meal patterns. |
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4: School Breakfast Program (SBP) Meal Pattern (length 29:34) Updated for School Year 2024-25: This module reviews the breakfast meal pattern requirements, including the daily and weekly servings of each meal component, the weekly requirement for whole grain-rich (WGR) foods, offering meats/meat alternates (MMA) at breakfast, the weekly juice limit, the optional breakfast meal patterns (grades K-8, grades 6-12, and grades K-12), the weekly dietary specifications, and key resources for guidance and training on the SBP meal patterns. |
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5: Dietary Specifications (length 19:40) Updated for School Year 2024-25: This module reviews the four dietary specifications for school meals (calories, saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars) and describes key resources for guidance and training on the dietary specifications. |
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6: Meal Pattern Documentation Part A - School Menus (length 1:03:11) Updated for School Year 2024-25: This module reviews the documentation requirements for school menus for the NSLP, SBP, and ASP meal patterns for grades K-12 and preschool, including menus, production records, standardized recipes, the USDA’s Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs, documentation for the Buy American Requirement, nutrition information for commercial processed foods, and key resources for guidance and training on documentation for school menus. |
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6: Meal Pattern Documentation Part B - Crediting Commerical Processed Products (length ) This module reviews the documentation requirements for crediting commercial processed products in the NSLP, SBP, and ASP meal patterns for grades K-12 and preschool, including an introduction to crediting foods, crediting documentation for commercial processed foods, i.e., Child Nutrition (CN) labels and product formulation statements (PFS), key resources for guidance and training on crediting documentation, and a knowledge check on how to review the creditable ingredients in a PFS. |
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7: Milk Component (length 41:07) Updated for School Year 2024-25: This module reviews the requirements and crediting information for the milk component, including the required daily and weekly servings, allowable types of milk, requirements for fluid milk substitutes in school meals, a knowledge check on milk substitutes for non-disability reasons, serving requirements for milk, noncreditable milk, and key resources for guidance and training on the milk component. |
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8: Meats/Meat Alternates (MMA) Component (length 1:06:57) Updated for School Year 2024-25: This module reviews the requirements and crediting information for the MMA component, including the difference between MMA and protein, required daily and weekly servings, offering MMA at breakfast, main dish requirement for lunch, crediting requirements for different types of MMA (commercial processed products, dried meats, cheeses, eggs, beans, peas, and lentils (including roasted beans, peas, and lentils and pasta made of 100 percent bean, pea, or lentils flour), nuts and seeds, nut and seed butters, yogurt and soy yogurt, tofu, tempeh, surimi, alternate protein products (APPs), noncreditable MMA, the USDA’s optional best practices for MMA, and key resources for guidance and training on the MMA component. |
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9: Fruits Component (length 49:55) Updated for School Year 2024-25: This module reviews the requirements and crediting information for the fruits component, including the required daily and weekly servings, the weekly juice limit, crediting requirements for different types of fruits (whole fresh fruits, frozen fruits, canned fruits, dried fruits, fruit juice, coconut, and pureed fruits including fruit smoothies), noncreditable fruits, a knowledge check about crediting fruits, and key resources for guidance and training on the fruits component. |
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10: Vegetables Component (length 1:13:56) Updated for School Year 2024-25: This module reviews the requirements and crediting information for the vegetables component, including the required daily and weekly servings, vegetable subgroups, juice limit, crediting requirements for different types of vegetables (vegetable juice, raw leafy greens, canned vegetables, hominy, dried vegetables, pureed vegetables, vegetable smoothies, soups, mixed vegetables, vegetable and fruit mixtures, and vegetable flour pasta), noncreditable vegetables, a knowledge check on crediting vegetables, and key resources for guidance and training on the vegetables component. |
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11: Grains Component (length 1:01:05) This module reviews the requirements and crediting information for the grains component. Topics include the required daily and weekly servings, allowable grains and grain products, creditable grain ingredients, how to identify whole and enriched grains, the crediting requirements for different types of grains (breakfast cereals, commercial grain products, commercial combination foods, and grain foods made from scratch), and restrictions for crediting grain-based desserts. This module also describes resources for guidance and training on the grains component. |
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12: Whole Grain-rich (WGR) Requirement (length 1:16:59) This module reviews the weekly WGR requirement and the WGR criteria for the grains component. Topics include the WGR criteria for different types of grains (commercial grain products, commercial combination foods, ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, and grain foods made from scratch), the limit for noncreditable grains and when to ignore noncreditable grains, how to determine if commercial grain products and standardized recipes are WGR, the required WGR documentation for commercial grain products, and when a PFS is required for WGR foods. This module also includes a knowledge check on how to determine if commercial grain foods meet the WGR criteria and describes resources for guidance and training on the WGR criteria. |
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13: Grain Ounce Equivalents (length 1:10:25) This module reviews the required ounce equivalents (oz eq) for the grains component. Topics include the USDA’s oz eq chart for nine different grain groups (groups A-I), Exhibit A: Grain Requirements for Child Nutrition Programs, the required quantities for each grain group to provide 1 oz eq, considerations for crediting sliced breads, how to determine the oz eq contribution of a commercial grain food or standardized recipe using the two allowable methods (Exhibit A and creditable grains), choosing a calculation method, rounding rules for oz eq calculations, when method 2 (creditable grains) is required for commercial grain products, and examples of how to use methods 1 and 2. This module also describes resources for guidance and training on grain oz eq. |
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14: Water Availability during Meal Service (length 14:37) Updated for School Year 2024-25: This module reviews the USDA’s requirement for making plain potable water available to students during the meal service. Topics include an overview of the water requirements, examples of how to offer water, implementation considerations, allowable costs, and resources for guidance and training on the water requirement. |
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15: Offer versus Serve (OVS) in the NSLP (length 1:41:07) This module reviews the OVS requirements for the NSLP including the requirements for reimbursable lunches, menu planning considerations for the food components, identifying reimbursable meals, OVS with family-style meal service and salad bars, required signage, and OVS best practices and strategies for success. This module also describes resources for guidance and training on OVS and includes Meal or No Meal: Lunch Edition, a quiz on identifying reimbursable lunches with OVS. |
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16: Offer versus Serve (OVS) in the SBP (length 1:32:08)
This module reviews the OVS requirements for the SBP. Topics include the requirements for reimbursable breakfasts, menu planning considerations, required signage, identifying reimbursable meals, and best practices for OVS. This module also describes resources for guidance and training on OVS and includes Meal or No Meal: Breakfast Edition, a quiz on identifying reimbursable breakfasts with OVS. |