Food, Nutrition and Wellness Trainings

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) offers training opportunities to assist Child Nutrition Program operators throughout Florida.

Meeting Professional Standards for School Nutrition Programs Personnel

Professional standards for school nutrition personnel is a key provision of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. FDACS's in-person and online trainings help food service professionals meet annual requirements set forth by the Professional Standards rule.

The final rule, effective July 1, 2015, establishes national standards for school nutrition personnel by requiring all personnel to complete minimum annual training and by instituting hiring standards for the selection of state and local program directors.

Effective April 30, 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a new rule, Hiring Flexibility Under Professional Standards, for new school nutrition directors in small local educational agencies.

Attendance Requirements for In-Person Training

For all trainings, there is a maximum of 40 participants to allow for hands-on work. If you have a larger number of participants, multiple sessions should be requested.

For ServSafe and ServSafe Recertification training sessions, a minimum of five participants is required.

The minimum participant requirements for all other trainings are listed below:

• If student enrollment is 2,499 or less, a minimum of 10 participants is required.
• If student enrollment is 2,500 to 9,999, a minimum of 20 participants is required.
• If student enrollment is 10,000 or more, a minimum of 30 participants is required.

To meet the minimum participant requirements, sessions may include participants from surrounding Child Nutrition Program sponsors.

Sponsors must provide a training location conducive to learning.