USDA Makes Available More Than $60 Million in School Meals, Launches New Partnership

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today visited Annandale Terrace Elementary School in Annandale, Virginia, where he unveiled two new grant opportunities plus a training and technical assistance partnership to help schools continue to invest in nutritious school meals. This announcement helps to reach the goals released in conjunction with the historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in September 2022 to increase access to healthy foods for students at schools across the country. All this unfolds as USDA joins students, parents/caregivers, schools, communities, and partners across the country in recognizing National School Lunch Week, as proclaimed by President Biden, and National Farm to School Month.

“USDA is committed to giving students the nutrition they need to reach their full potential by empowering schools to continue serving delicious, healthy meals,” said Secretary Vilsack. “There’s no better time to announce these new efforts to support schools than during National School Lunch Week and Farm to School Month, as we acknowledge the critical role that school meals play in a child’s life. The Biden-Harris Administration will continue doing everything we can to ensure schools have the tools they need to keep serving the highest quality meals to kids across America.”

USDA is partnering with the Urban School Food Alliance to provide trainings and tools to school districts that will help them purchase high quality foods, while keeping costs low. In recent years schools have faced challenges in obtaining healthy foods consistently, efficiently and effectively. This initiative will support schools with school meals procurement, including the development of tools and training.

"The Urban School Food Alliance appreciates the opportunity to work with USDA to improve the school food procurement process for all stakeholders,” said Dr. Katie Wilson, executive director of the Urban School Food Alliance. “With procurement practices laying the foundation for obtaining fresh, healthy food served throughout our nation's schools, we look forward to developing and implementing new tools to push for a more efficient and sustainable food system that includes supporting local economies.”

In addition, there are two new grant opportunities opening to support school meals:

Beginning today, USDA is accepting applications for the next round of USDA Farm to School Grants – which support local child nutrition programs in serving more fresh and local foods – through January 12, 2024.

Applications will open soon for the School Food Systems Transformation Challenge Sub-Grants. As the second phase of USDA’s Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative, these sub-grants will fund projects promoting innovation in the school meals marketplace through collaboration between schools food producers and suppliers, including local producers and small and disadvantaged businesses.

Source: usda.gov

Photo Credit: USDA