Blogs

USDA’s 16 nutrition assistance programs reach one in four Americans over the course of a year, and they are some of the most far-reaching, powerful tools in the federal government to help ensure that everyone — of all demographic groups and life stages—experiences nutrition security.

The 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee will hold its third meeting Sept. 12-13, 2023. The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture invite the public to participate in this important event via live webcast.

USDA FNS Administrator and regional FNS leadership visited New Mexico to recognize several FNS nutrition assistance programs in action and learn how FNS can support their work. New Mexico is one of the first states to offer healthy meals to all children, ensuring more kids have access to the meals they need to thrive at school and beyond.

Bringing together local producers and schools was the objective of the “Bringing the Farm to School” producer training in Hardin, Montana. The training sought to build relationships between schools and producers to increase the availability of local foods served to children.

SNAP provides nutrition support to millions of American families in need. USDA’s FNS works with partner states to ensure that SNAP provides the right amount of benefits to eligible families in the prescribed timeframes.

Connecting Kids to Meals, known as CKM, is a nonprofit agency in Toledo, Ohio, that provides healthy meals at no cost to at-risk kids in low-income and underserved areas of Northwest Ohio. With a nearly 20-year history of feeding hungry kids, the critical work of CKM becomes more important every day.

The RUSD community exemplifies the commitment to healthy food for kids – a priority of the USDA and the Biden-Harris Administration. That commitment can produce an entire school community that embraces and supports the notion of serving and teaching kids about healthy foods.

Reliable, high-quality work is a powerful way out of poverty, and USDA’s SNAP Employment and Training helps gain professional skills and connections to better employment opportunities.

Can you imagine a day when healthcare is mostly proactive as opposed to reactive? Imagine if everyone has access to the vital conditions for health and wellbeing: the factors that people depend on to reach their full potential. What does that future look like?

USDA FNS is working hard to get more eligible families connected to WIC by making it easier to enroll.

School breakfast programs are critical in building a healthier future for America’s children. But currently, only half of the children who eat school lunch also get their breakfast at school. 

The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture encourage public participation in the committee’s review process.

In Colorado, Adams and Denver counties are taking innovative approaches to co-located health and human services operations.

The HHS and USDA will host the second full meeting of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on May 10, 2023. The meeting will be livestreamed for public viewing.

Over the course of three days in MI, Stacy Dean, Deputy Under Secretary for FNS, spoke at "The State of Our Plate" convening, met with school food service professionals, and attended a summit for healthcare professionals, insurers, federal, state, and local government officials.

The Fondy Farmers Market is Milwaukee's 105-year-old, largest, and the first farmers market in Wisconsin to accept SNAP. The market is run by Fondy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing access to healthy, local food and economic opportunity across the greater Milwaukee area and is an impressive model in so many ways.

Greeley-Evans School District 6 in northern Colorado was honored and excited to welcome Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to Maplewood Elementary School on March 22. The Secretary and visitors were able to see just one school of more than 30 in District 6 that provide essential health and nutrition programs to more than 22,000 students every day.

Federal nutrition programs do more than give kids food to eat. They teach children about the importance of nutrition and help them develop healthy habits.

Food industry partners play a crucial role in producing, procuring and delivering food for our school meal programs. Despite the challenges that industry and school food service operators have encountered over the past few years, they have continued delivering food and serving nutritious meals to tens of millions of children every day.

USDA FNS supports indigenous health and tribal sovereignty through FDPIR Self-Determination Demonstration Projects. The Alaska Native Health Consortium, operates a FDPIR self-determination demonstration project that provides foods to 18 tribes across Alaska.