[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 7, Volume 4]
[Revised as of January 1, 2005]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 7CFR227.36]

[Page 268]
 
                          TITLE 7--AGRICULTURE
 
    CHAPTER II--FOOD AND NUTRITION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 
PART 227_NUTRITION EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROGRAM--Table of Contents
 
                 Subpart C_State Coordinator Provisions
 
Sec. 227.36  Requirements of needs assessment.

    (a) The needs assessment is an ongoing process which identifies the 
discrepancies between ``what should be'' and ``what is'' and shall be 
applied to each category listed below to enable State agencies to 
determine their nutrition education and training needs for each year. 
The needs assessment shall identify the following as a minimum:
    (1) Children, teachers, and food service personnel in need of 
nutrition education and training; (2) existing State or federally funded 
nutrition education and training programs including their: (i) Goals and 
objectives; (ii) source and level of funding; (iii) any available 
documentation of their relative success or failure; and (iv) factors 
contributing to their success or failure; (3) offices or agencies at the 
State and local level designated to be responsible for nutrition 
education and training of teachers and school food service personnel; 
(4) any relevant State nutrition education mandates; (5) funding levels 
at the State and local level for preservice and inservice nutrition 
education and training of food service personnel and teachers; (6) State 
and local individuals, and groups conducting nutrition education and 
training; (7) materials which are currently available for nutrition 
education and training programs, and determine for each: (i) Subject 
area and content covered; (ii) grade level; (iii) how utilized; (iv) 
acceptability by user; (v) currency of materials; (8) any major child 
nutrition related health problems in each State; (9) existing sources of 
primary and secondary data, including any data that has been collected 
for documenting the State's nutrition education and training needs; (10) 
available documentation of the competencies of teachers in the area of 
nutrition education; (11) available documentation of the competencies of 
food service personnel; (12) problems encountered by schools and 
institutions in procuring nutritious food economically and in preparing 
nutritious appetizing meals and areas where training can assist in 
alleviating these problems; (13) problems teachers encounter in 
conducting effective nutrition education activities and areas where 
inservice training or materials can assist in alleviating these 
problems; (14) problems in dietary habits of children and areas where 
nutrition education may assist in positive changes; (15) problems 
encountered in coordinating the nutrition education by teachers with the 
meal preparation and activities of the food service facility and areas 
where training might alleviate these problems.
    (b) The needs assessment should be an ongoing process and provide 
not only data on current activities but also a description of the 
problems and needs in each category and whether training or materials 
would help alleviate the identified problems.