Washington, DC, March 5, 2018 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Steve Censky today announced two new efforts to provide states and school districts with additional flexibility and support to operate more efficient school meal programs. Censky made the announcement during a speech at the School Nutrition Association Legislative Action Conference in Washington, D.C.

Child Nutrition Hiring Flexibility Rule

In 2015, USDA established education and training requirements for nutrition professionals as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. While this strengthened many school meal programs, some small school districts faced challenges finding qualified applicants to direct their local food service operation. Today’s proposal would provide much-needed relief for school districts with less than 2,500 students, allowing them more flexibility in the hiring of new school nutrition program directors.

“Small and rural school districts will no longer have to overlook qualified food service professionals because of one-size-fits-all standards that don’t meet their needs," said Censky. “We trust our local partners to hire talented school nutrition program directors who will manage the meal service in a way that protects the health and well-being of students.”

USDA is providing a 60-day public comment period and will then develop a final rule that responds to the needs of partners and stakeholders.

Child Nutrition Food Crediting Request for Information

To support states’ efforts to improve program integrity, USDA also rolled out a suite of customizable resources to help local school districts improve the accuracy of their school meal application processes. These resources include support for online applications, evidenced-based materials, and best practices to simplify the process for families and ensure that eligible children receive free and reduced-priced meals.

“USDA’s goal to do right and feed everyone starts with our children,” said Censky. “We are committed to giving states and school districts more tools and options to build a bright, self-sufficient future for America’s children through well-managed school meal programs.”

As part of this package, USDA is offering guidance to help schools utilize its award-winning, open-source online school meal application model. USDA developed the application with input from local food service professionals. The customer-friendly design of the model is intended to increase the integrity of the application process by reducing common mistakes families make when applying for free or reduced-priced school meals.

“These tools are the benchmark for future innovation and give schools 21^st century resources and strategies to run efficient food service operations, now and into the future,” Censky said. “Schools can ensure the proper use of funds for feeding students in need, protecting the taxpayer dollar through high integrity programs.”

USDA invites software developers in private industry to join schools in delivering customer service by helping them tailor their own applications.

Today’s announcement is the latest in a series of recent USDA actions to expand flexibility and ease challenges for partners and stakeholders who help feed our nation’s children. Other actions include:

• Publishing the School Meal Flexibility Rule, which provides local food service professionals the flexibility they need to serve wholesome, nutritious, and tasty meals in schools across the nation.
• Releasing “The Food Buying Guide,” a mobile app that puts critical information at the fingertips of food service professionals and makes it easier for them to plan wholesome, nutritious, and tasty school meals.
• Selecting Kansas State University to direct the Center for Food Safety in Child Nutrition Programs, which will help improve food safety across all of USDA’s child nutrition programs.
• Inviting the public to submit ideas on food crediting, the system that defines how each food item contributes to meal requirements under the National School Lunch Program and other federal child nutrition programs.

About 100,000 schools and institutions feed 30 million children through the National School Lunch Program and nearly 15 million children through the School Breakfast Program. Many of these children receive their meals at no cost or for a reduced price according to income-based eligibility.

USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) administers 15 nutrition assistance programs, including the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, the Summer Food Service Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which together comprise America's nutrition safety net.

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Washington, DC, June 21, 2018 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) today announced $5.2 million in grant awards to bring nutritious, local foods into schools and create new economic opportunities for farmers. The grants, part of the USDA Farm to School Program, will impact over 6,000 schools and 2.8 million students nationwide.

“USDA is committed to helping our children build bright futures with good nutrition,” said Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Brandon Lipps. “These grants expose students to the local foods and the importance of agriculture, while supporting American farmers in both urban and rural economies.”

This year, FNS is awarding grants to 73 projects across 43 states, the District of Columbia and Guam. This brings the total USDA investment in Farm to School Grants to over $25 million across 350 farm to school projects since the program began in 2013.

The grants have been proven to produce positive outcomes for schools and communities alike. For example, the Oneida Indian Nation used its 2016 Farm to School grant to invest in an aquaponics system that enables the harvest of lettuce and tilapia, which will be used in school meals at Oneida Nation High School.

“From pre-K to high school, farm to school programs benefit everyone from students and teachers to parents and producers,” said Lipps. “Connecting people to their food builds stronger ties to community agriculture and an appreciation for those who care for our land.”

The Farm to School Grants are competitively available to eligible schools, state and local agencies, Indian tribal organizations, agricultural producers, and non-profit entities. Funds may be used for training, supporting operations, planning, purchasing equipment, developing school gardens, cultivating partnerships, and implementing farm to school programs.

USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) administers 15 nutrition assistance programs, including the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, the Summer Food Service Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which together comprise America's nutrition safety net.

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WASHINGTON, DC, September 21, 2018 – USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue yesterday hosted a roundtable with local school officials to learn more about how USDA can best assist and enable their efforts to serve nutritious meals to our nation's children.

The meeting was part of the Secretary's ongoing efforts to explore reforms that will make school meals more appealing by giving control back to local school food professionals who know the children best.

“School officials have expertise critical to the conversation of school meal reform,” said Perdue. “USDA is committed to giving schools the common sense flexibilities they need to serve nutritious meals kids will want to eat.”

Local officials provided feedback on the role of school meal policy in ensuring their students' nutrition:

• “Every day, school meals fuel the academic success of America's future generations. School Nutrition Association welcomes this opportunity to join our partners in discussing ways to strengthen school meal programs and ensure students have access to nourishing, appealing meals. We greatly appreciate Secretary Perdue's continued dedication to reducing unnecessary burdens and streamlining the complexity of school meal programs so that our members, working in school cafeterias nationwide, can focus on serving students,” said School Nutrition Association President Gay Anderson.
• “School boards have an integral role in implementing school meal programs but we should not be the cupcake police,” said Neil Putnam, National School Boards Association Director and Vice President of the Mitchell Board of Education, South Dakota. “I appreciate U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue's interest in hearing directly from locally elected school board members who are on the front lines of providing affordable nutritious meals to students. In my view, increased flexibility and decreased regulations will help local school districts reduce food waste and costs and will increase student participation in school meal programs.”
• “As directors of large urban school nutrition programs, we appreciate the opportunity to discuss with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue ways the Department can simplify federal administrative requirements and help our schools continue to meet current nutrition standards for our nation's children, design desirable meals, take better advantage of in-season fruits and vegetables, increase student participation, reduce plate waste, and control costs,” said Cincinnati Public Schools Director of Food Services Jessica Shelly and Miami-Dade County Public Schools Food and Nutrition Officer Penny Parham in a joint statement.
• "I believe strongly in serving my students with a well-rounded education, and proper nutrition is a critical piece of that education,” said Mervin Daugherty, Superintendent for Red Clay Consolidated School District, Wilmington, DE. “I understand the importance of nutrition, and work to ensure all students can access healthy meals. In Red Clay, we have worked to find a balance of following federal standards, serving meals that students enjoy, and maintaining costs. I thank the Secretary for calling this meeting and look forward to working with him to find some common-sense regulatory changes to better serve students.”

The Secretary's roundtable was held in advance of the publication of the final rule on Child Nutrition Programs: Flexibilities for Milk, Whole Grains, and Sodium Requirements, targeted for release later this year. The interim final rule published in November 2017 gave schools flexibilities for the milk, sodium, and whole grain requirements for school year 2018-2019.

“We are looking ahead for more ways to help local operators run world-class school meal programs,” said Perdue. The Secretary added that increasing program efficiency and accountability is a priority for USDA, as it makes the best use of taxpayer dollars.

USDA Acting Deputy Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Brandon Lipps expects to meet with more school meals partners and customers through the remainder of the year. USDA encourages local feedback and seeks to provide the tools and flexibilities school meal programs need to improve customer service.

USDA's Food and Nutrition Service administers 15 nutrition assistance programs. In addition to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, these programs include the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, the National School Lunch Program, and the Summer Food Service Program which together comprise America's nutrition safety net. For more information, visit www.fns.usda.gov.

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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.