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2022-002: CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAM - MEAL COUNTS (CODE 30000) Programs Affected National School Lunch Program (U.S. Department of Agriculture, CFDA Number 10.555, Passed through the California Department of Education, award year 2021/22, award number not available). National School Breakfast Program, U.S. Department of Agriculture, CFDA number 10.553, passed through the California Department of Education, award year 2021/22, award number not available Criteria The Code of Federal Regulations, 7 CFR 210.7(c) requires that meals are counted, recorded, and reported through a system that consistently yields accurate claims. Condition During our testing of the cafeteria program, in which we tested meal counts for the month of January, we noted that the District made a clerical error when totaling the monthly meal counts that resulted in an overstatement of the number of free lunches and breakfasts by 3,542 meals and 1,232 meals, respectively. We expanded our testing to recompute monthly totals for every month in the school year, and noted no other errors. Questioned Costs/Effect The overstated meal counts noted above resulted in an over-reimbursement of federal funds for January in the amounts of $16,160 for lunches and $3,209 for breakfasts, and an over-reimbursement of State funds in the amount of $1,187, for a total combined over-reimbursement of $20,556. Cause Clerical error. Recommendation We recommend that the District implement procedures to check large variances from prior month reported meal counts before filing the monthly claim form for the Child Nutrition Program. We further recommend that the District file an amended claim form for January 2022 to report the correct meal counts as indicated in "Audited amount allowed" column of the following schedule. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Action The District agrees and will adhere to the corrective action plan described in the "District's Corrective Action Plan" section immediately following this section of the audit report.