The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Division of Food, Nutrition and Wellness (FNW) offers training opportunities to assist Child Nutrition Program operators throughout Florida.
FNW's New Learning Management System (LMS) Is Live
This new training system will contain online training, learning, and professional development initiatives for sponsors and recipient agencies. We encourage you to register for an account and log in to explore!
Go here to start:
Register for FNW Online Training Account
If you have difficulty registering:
Here's a
step-by-step guide
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for registering and logging in to the FNW Online Training System.
From the homepage, you can jump directly to the Course Catalog to see all the current training opportunities by selecting "FNW Course Catalog."
If you have any questions, please reach out to FNW.LMS@FDACS.gov.
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.
Training for School Food Service
Instructor-Led Courses (In-Person and Virtual)
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) offers free instructor-led courses to help school food authorities and vendors meet U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Professional Standards training requirements.
All courses meet at least one of the USDA Professional Standards learning objectives required for training. To request instructor-led training, submit one of the following forms at least three weeks prior to the requested training date(s):
Attendance Requirements
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.
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.
Online Training
Please refer to our online training portal for a list of courses available online.
Culinary Training
FDACS offers hands-on kitchen training for staff of approved sponsors. Topics include basic knife skills, handling fresh produce, roasting vegetables, no-sodium seasonings and more. Request culinary training.
Technical Assistance
If you need assistance and guidance in operating your child nutrition or household program, contact your program specialist for technical assistance.