CNAC Minutes for the August 22, 2025 Meeting

Council Members

Kim Frinzell – Director Nutrition Services Division (NSD) Absent
Ronald Little – School Administration
Maryam Shayegh – Consultant
Carrie Buck – School Board (absent)
Amber Green – Nutrition Education Specialist
Anne Wilson – School Food Services Supervisor
Yaz Widatalla – School Nutrition Services Director

Absent

Maulik Dhakal, Student Representative (new)

Guests

Jackie Richardson, Associate Director, California Department of Education (CDE)
Reema El-Murr, Nutrition Education Administrator, CDE
Andrea Bricker, Nutrition Education Consultant, CDE
Nina Ortiz, Office Technician, CDE

Administrative Activities: (facilitated by Kim Frinzell)

• Meeting called to order at 9:33 a.m.
• Review of remote meeting requirements
• Child Nutrition Advisory Council (CNAC) member update – Rachel Rothman – residing outside of California and will no longer be a CNAC member.
• Agenda overview
• Meeting Agenda August 2025: Motion to approve CNAC agenda. Seconded. Agenda approved.
• Meeting Minutes April 30, 2025: Open to amend. Motion to approve meeting minutes. Seconded. Minutes approved.
• Overview of required forms and training (Andrea Bricker)
  • Form 700 2024–2025 Statement of Economic Interests is due May 30, 2025.
  • Ethics training is due October 30, 2025, or every two years thereafter.
    

Request for public comment:

No public comment.

Agenda Items

Item 1: CNAC Member Roles & Responsibilities (facilitated by Jackie Richardson)

• Brief overview of positions, roles and responsibilities, and review of CNAC bylaws and regulations for each position.
• Vice Chair
  • Ronald Little submitted letter of interest, and no other letters of interest were received.
  • Ronald shared his interest statement to CNAC members.
  • Went to oral open vote for Ronald Little as CNAC Vice Chair. Vote approved.
• Chair Position
  • No letters of interest for the Chair position were received.
  • Opened time for anyone to speak in interest for the Chair position.
  • No interest statements for the CNAC Chair position were provided.
• Open for Comment/Questions: None.
  

Questions:

None.

Item 2 – Nutrition Services Division Updates (Jackie Richardson)

Senate Bill (SB) 121 & Overview of 2025 Kitchen and Infrastructure Funding

• $155 million for two competitive grants
  
  
  • $145 million for a competitive grant supporting kitchen infrastructure and equipment upgrades, ongoing staffing, and training costs associated with providing minimally processed, freshly prepared onsite meals and procuring California grown, whole or minimally processed, sustainably grown foods for school meals.
    
    
  • $10 million for a retention and recruitment grant which provides financial incentives or one-time staffing costs associated with hiring and retaining qualified food service staff.
    
    
  • CDE anticipates releasing the funding notification in early spring 2026.
    
    
• $5 million for Ultra Processed Food (UPF) study
  
  
  • The Marin County Office of Education will contract with the University of California to conduct a study on UPFs currently offered in school meals, competitive foods, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) foods available at a minimum of 50 school sites in California.

UPDATE: Governor’s Executive Order N-1-25 Ultra Processed Foods

• CDE and the State Board of Education (SBE) will provide recommendations to the Governor on areas where California may adopt higher standards for healthy school meals than the federal requirements.
  
  
• CDE distributed a statewide UPF Survey to school foodservice directors in early April 2025; the survey closed on Monday, April 28, 2025.
  
  
• 259 food service directors responded to the survey.
  
  
• Results will be helpful to shape CDE and SBE recommendations.
  
  
• Survey results were shared with members.

Processor Survey

• The CDE developed a UPF survey for processors that was shared at the California School Nutrition Association’s Child Nutrition and Industry Summit in May.
• Five (5) survey responses were received.
• Survey results were shared with members.

Break:

Motion to break. Seconded. 15-minute break approved.
Began – 10:29 a.m.
Back to Order – 10:45 a.m.

Item 3: Review and finalize 2025–26 CNAC priority areas (Jackie Richardson)

Action Plans

• Review past plans
• Vote on and highlight priority areas
• Review subcommittees

Subcommittees: (Jackie Richardson)

Adequate Time to Eat (ATE) – 2023 CNAC Priority Recommendations

• The CNAC ATE subcommittee created content for an ATE fact sheet.
• Subcommittee recommendations for next steps:
  • Develop a toolkit, create a site visit checklist, and practice-based recommendations.
  • Provide ATE training to nutrition professionals and certified professionals.
• Members shared the benefits of ATE, and how it can also support student mental health and reduce stress.
• No edits to content.

Increasing Access to School Breakfast to Improve Student Outcomes – 2023 CNAC Priority Recommendations

• This subcommittee developed the white paper “Increasing Access to School Breakfast to Improve Student Outcomes.”
• Subcommittee recommendations for next steps:
  • Develop a toolkit
  • Develop recommendations

Increasing Access to Meals Out of School Times – 2023 CNAC Priority Recommendations

• This subcommittee developed the white paper “Increasing Access to Meals Out of School Times.”
• Subcommittee recommendations for next steps are to consider developing tools to:
  
  • Support schools and other organizations in serving meals.
    
    
  • Increase families’ awareness of summer meal options.
    
    
  • Increase access to fresh and minimally processed foods including fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and plant-based meals at summer meal sites.
    
    
  • Strengthen summer meal sites through increased learning and enrichment opportunities and wraparound services for families.

Other Priority Area Recommendation: Ultra Processed Foods (UPF)

• CNAC members also recommended the addition of UPFs as another potential priority area.
• Motion to approve UPF subcommittee – Motion opened. Seconded. Approved.
• Motion to establish UPF and ATE as the priority recommendations for CNAC – Motion opened. Seconded. Approved.

Item 3: Continued – Subcommittee membership (Jackie Richardson)

• Members voted on priority area groups in which they would like to participate:
• Priority Workgroup Members
  • ATE: Maryam Shayegh, Ron Little
  • UPFs: Yaz Widatalla, Amber Green, Anne Wilson
  • Carrie Buck requested to be part of the ATE priority subcommittee via online survey prior to this CNAC meeting.

MS Teams Account/Teams Group (Andrea Bricker)

• CNAC subcommittees worked on action plans, brainstorming, and planning for groups.
• CNAC will reconvene at 11:55 a.m., then break for lunch.
• Each group will elect a spokesperson.
• Work can continue into the next meeting.

Questions: None.

Subcommittee Groups Summary

Breakout:

Members dispersed into break out groups.
Began – 11:30 a.m.
Back to Order – 11:55 a.m.

Break: Lunch

Group dismissed for lunch.
Began – 11:58 a.m.
Back to Order – 1:00 p.m.
Move to break at 2:25 p.m. Seconded. Approved.

Item 3: Action plan subcommittee discussion and report out

UPF Subcommittee

• Assembly Bill (AB) 1264 – subcommittee is monitoring status
• Subcommittee wishes to:
  • Provide UPF-related and data-driven resources, tools, and information to schools.
  • Educate how reduced UPF benefits child nutrition
• Each subcommittee member identified additional areas of information to research and bring back to share during the next CNAC meeting.

Questions:

None

ATE group

• Reviewed the benefits of ATE
• Provided a listing of some items to consider when discussing ATE, such as infrastructure, logistics, and staff education
• Subcommittee considering options for how best to support next steps
  • Surveys, template updates, resources updated, sharing and spreading knowledge, strengthening communities throughout the entire process

Questions:

None

Request for Public Comment:

No public comment.

Item 4: Continued (Jackie Richardson)

Agenda Items

• CNAC will continue to solicit interest in the Chair position
• Continue CNAC subcommittees work
• Continue with CDE updates
• No additional agenda items from members

Questions:

None.

Item 5: Next Meeting Date – Tentatively October 10, 2025

Move to approval. Seconded. Approved.

Request for Public Comment:

No public comment.

Adjourn

No closing comments from members.

Final Questions: None.

Reminders: None.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.

Key Terms and Acronyms:

CNAC – Child Nutrition Advisory Council

UPF – Ultra Processed Foods

CDE – California Dept. of Education

ATE – Adequate Time to Eat

NSD – Nutrition Services Division

USDA – U.S. Dept. of Agriculture

Chair – Chair of the CNAC

VC – Vice chair for the CNAC

Dir – Director

CA – California