GEM NO. 2.5

Computerized Feedback and Recipes lor Family

error had occurred. To improve the situa­tion, we installed a letter-quality printer and started specifying the date and meal when an error was made. Now, the com­puter letters are well received, especially since we have made providers more aware of the large number of letters we print each month.

Day-Care Providers Gloria Wheeler, Nutrition Manager, Quality Child Care, Inc., Box 176, Mound, Minnesota 55364

We have developed a computerized let­ter system that furnishes timely feedback and educational information to providers enrolled in the USDA Child Care Food Program under the sponsorship of Quali­ty Child Care, Inc. Our letters focus on the need to meet USDA requirements for the Child Care Food Program. By show­ing family day-care providers how to com­ply with USDA requirements and by mon­itoring their compliance, we are teaching nutrition to providers, and they, in turn, are providing better nutrition for the children in their care. As an extension of the letters, we furnish recipes that pro­viders can use as a tool to meet the re­quirements. Thus, providers receive edu­cational information and a method to meet requirements established by the USDA.

Each month we review over 4,000 menus from family day-care providers for compliance with USDA Child Care Food Program requirements. The review of the menus is a time-consuming task, but an even more time-consuming task is ensur­ing feedback regarding each provider's compliance status. Instead of choosing between either writing an individual letter to each provider or furnishing no feed­back at all, we use an individually ad­dressed, computer letter that reflects the results of our review of each provider's menu. Thus, the purpose of using com­puter letters is threefold:

I To monitor compliance with USDA component and portion require­ments for the Child Care Food Pro­gram

2 To inform providers about their compliance status

3 To educate providers to improve their compliance status.

Our system includes a set of 60 paragraphs stored in a computer with a numerical code. Each paragraph ad­dresses a potential menu error . A staff per­son reviews the provider's menu and records the provider's name and computer reference number, the date and the meal in which the error occurred, and the number of the paragraph that responds to the error on the menu. For example, a provider who serves a breakfast cereal

that is predominantly sugar will receive paragraph 15, as shown below.

1-4-83 Breakfast If sugar is listed as the first ingredient in the breakfast cereal you serve, it will not meet minimum requirements. Choose a cereal with sugar listed at least second or preferably third on the list of ingredients. Your Provider Handbook has a list of acceptable cereals you can serve! (see Page 29.)

The paragraph lists the date and meal of the error, tells the provider what is wrong with the meal recorded on the menu, what to look for on labels, and which pages in the handbook contain more information. A provider who meets the minimum requirements receives a let­ter saying the menus were excellent.

The computer types an individually ad­dressed letter to the provider on our cor­porate letterhead. We get a computerized monthly report that tells us how many providers received each paragraph. With this information, we can monitor changes in menu compliance from month to month. In addition to computerized let­ters, we use group training, a newsletter, home visit training, and special notices to promote and reinforce menu compliance. We include mealtime tips and recipes in each form of training listed.

At first, provider response to the letters was not positive. Our letters were printed by a dot-matrix printer and gave no in­dication of the date or meal when the er­ror was made. Providers felt the letters were impersonal, and complained because they could not determine exactly when an

A collection of recipes offers the tools providers need to help them meet USDA requirements. Providers can put the nutri­tion knowledge they get from the com­puter letter into practice with recipes from our monthly newsletter Food Press and a snack cookbook called Nutritious Nibbles (see Note).

Each recipe in the cookbook was sub­mitted by a provider who participated in the USDA Child Care Food Program under the sponsorship of Quality Child Care, Inc. The recipes selected for the cookbook were those most frequently submitted or those that were most creative. Although some recipes with sugar, salt, and/or fat were included, the book's focus is on nutritious as well as practical combinations.

A chart representing USDA require­ments accompanies each recipe. A pro­vider preparing a recipe can look at the chart, seen below, and determine the number of children a recipe will serve, and which RDA components will be met. For example, we converted an old favorite, peaches and cream, to a recipe for a snack of peaches and cheese. The recipe is nutritious and meets USDA requirements for a serving of fruit and of a meat alter­nate for five children. Providers have ex­pressed their appreciation for the snack cookbook with its innovative snack ideas that can be used with confidence to meet USDA requirements.

Note More information about Nutritious Nibbles is available through: Day Care Fair, Box 324, Mound, MN 55364.

Peaches and Cheese CONTRIBUTOR, Claudia F. Carrie re 6 canned peach halves , drained

3/4 cup ricotta or cottage cheese 2 Tbsp. whole bran cereal with

Requirements

~Juice or Fruit or

eVeaetable

DSread or

o8~~:~;J~:!ta IDMeat or Poultrv or Fish or

fI)Cneese or

6)EQQS or

6)Peanut Butter or

6)Dned Beans and Peas

wheat germ 1/ 4 tsp . vanilla extract Drain peach halves. In small bowl, comhine cheese, one chopped peach half, cereal and vanilla . Spoon a rounded tablespooh onto cut side of each half. (Use 1/8 cup cheese mixture per peach half.) Spri nkle with additional cereal or wheat germ .

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JOURNAL OF NUTRITION EDUCATION 16:76F. 1984