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October is Farm to School Month! The USDA Farm to School Program helps schools incorporate local foods into meal programs and supports local food and agriculture education through grants, research, and technical assistance. Less plate waste may be a benefit for schools implementing farm to school.

October is Farm to School Month, when USDA joins schools, farms, and community organizations across the country to celebrate the role of farm to school programs in getting healthy, locally grown foods onto children’s trays through child nutrition programs, including school breakfast and lunch.

With a desire to create healthy relationships between American children and food, a group of chefs created Pilot Light in 2010. This program partners with Pre K–12 teachers to make food education a part of everyday classroom lessons. Through holistic food education, students learn about the cultivation and preparation of food and the connection to our culture, relationships, history, and the environment.

USDA’s Farm to School Program awards grants to help connect students to the sources of their food through education, taste tests, school gardens, field trips, and local food sourcing for school meals. Schools and other eligible organizations can apply for a Farm to School Grant between now and Jan. 6, 2023.

On August 14-19, a leadership team traveled to Guam and the Commonwealth of Northern Marianna Islands to meet with the territories’ leadership, superintendents and commissioners, that administer USDA food assistance programs. They discussed the challenges of transitioning back to pre-pandemic operations, how USDA could assist, and lessons learned.

Here’s what FNS staff had to say about the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and what lies ahead.

Today kicks off the second, historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. It’s been more than 50 years since the last conference, which produced impactful, meaningful changes to improve USDA nutrition assistance programs, including SNAP, WIC and school meals. The conference will work towards ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases and disparities in the U.S. by 2030.

Liberation Farms allows families to grow food for themselves. In 2020, support from community partners helped move farm operations onto a single property with room for everyone – and a herd of goats, too!

In May 2022, FNS Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator joined Maryland Department of Aging Deputy Secretary at Sandtown Winchester Senior Center in West Baltimore. 

In WIC, specialty formulas are issued with a doctor’s note to participants receiving Food Package III, which is for children with special nutritional needs. These babies have a documented health condition that requires the use of a specialty formula. With specialty formula in short supply, many families have needed an alternative option. WIC state agencies can use a variety of strategies to support participants’ access to specialty formulas.

Over the last two years, we’ve experienced major disruptions in the world of school meals – new realities stemming from pandemic-related school closures and supply chain disruptions which have impacted the cost and availability of food, staff, and supplies. Through it all, our dedicated school nutrition professionals have demonstrated a tireless commitment to ensuring kids remain fed and nourished.

WIC’s food package helps to supplement a household’s food budget, increasing participants’ food resources and helping to tackle food and nutrition insecurity. Nutrition educators are a critical ingredient to helping the USDA promote and elevate nutrition security.

The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health will be on September 28th – the first of its kind in over 50 years. The conference will focus on nutrition security, which means maintaining consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe and affordable food.

This keiki nutrition education effort is an integral service of The Food Basket’s DA BUX Double Up Food Bucks program, a statewide program working to increase the purchase and consumption of Hawai‘i-grown fruits and vegetables by SNAP participants.

Cooking Matters Colorado and Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center’s School Wellness Programs engaged with three corner stores in Denver to pilot a SNAP-Ed campaign designed to improve healthy eating.

In early August, Deputy Under Secretary Stacy Dean and Administrator Cindy Long travelled to San Francisco for meetings and events related to the work FNS does to support local communities - visiting programs that have an impact on addressing hunger.

Tribal nations across what we now consider the Great Plains relied for millennia on their buffalo relatives for food, medicine, clothing, tools, and shelter. Yet today it is hard to find buffalo meat on school meal trays in the very areas where they once sustained Native communities. FNS is working with tribal partners to figure out why and to remove the barriers we can.

USDA’s Local Food Directories make it easy for customers to find fresh local foods through four local outlets. Recent updates have made the directories easier to use on the go, on your phone or computer. We’ve also launched a new directory for agritourism. As the platform continues to grow, here are a few tips on how to navigate this resource.

The 2019 National Farmers Market Survey conducted by the USDA’s AMS and the NASS collected data regarding the market practices of managers in 2019 from 10,000 farmers markets. Using trends and statistics found from these efforts, AMS and Wheaton College created five research briefs highlighting results from this survey and sharing insights into the trajectory for farmers markets into the future.

In honor of the 30th Anniversary of SNAP-Ed, the FNS Western Regional Office visited Rosemary Elementary School in Campbell, CA.