Turnip the Beet on Summer Meals
By Tanuja Kulkarni, MS MPH RDN, Nutritionist, USDA FNS Child Nutrition Programs
It’s award season! USDA is excited to highlight summer meal sponsors who go above and beyond to ensure children receive nutritious, appetizing meals.
Summer represents a crucial time of year to fight hunger and support good nutrition for our nation’s youth. The 2023 Turnip the Beet awards celebrate heroes from a variety of organizations, including schools, local government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and camps who sponsor USDA summer meal programs and provide free meals and snacks to kids during the summer months. These vital partners help fill a hunger and nutrition void, playing a meaningful role in making sure children have the nutrition they need to learn, grow and thrive.
It’s a moment for these unsung leaders to shine.
As in year’s past, this crop of winners excelled in many ways: serving an array of vegetables and fruits throughout the week; offering whole grains and low-fat dairy products; and providing culturally appropriate meals, so no child is ever excluded. Other partners leveraged feedback from participants to refine their menus. One of the gold winners, North Hills Cares, Inc. (Pennsylvania), conducted a survey for families about meal options. In it, children were encouraged to mark their favorites and rate new options they sampled, enabling sponsors to better accommodate culinary preferences.
Creativity was another defining feature of our 2023 champions. Some offered nutrition education activities along with their meals. Lodi Family Center (Ohio), a gold award winner, hosted cooking and gardening classes as part of their program. Engaged kids harvested the fruits and vegetables in the morning, then dedicated chefs prepared them later for lunch and snacks. The practice helped introduce children to new foods and skills, while educating them on the origin of their meals. The results were a reward in and of itself: the program experienced an increase in vegetable consumption and a welcomed decrease in food waste.
For efforts in summer 2023, 55 gold, 67 silver and 18 bronze awardees were honored for their commitment to a healthier future for our kids. Congratulations to all the winners!
USDA will host the Turnip the Beet awards again next year to recognize summer meal sponsors that go the extra mile in 2024. If you’re interested in nominating another unsung leader in this area, check out the FNS Turnip the Beet website for more information.
Learn about all the ways USDA is supporting children in the summer at the link below:
On Feb. 21, 2024, FNS published a proposed rule Serious Deficiency Process in the Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program. This webinar recording provides an explanation of the major proposed changes as they relate to CACFP and SFSP.
Four School Districts Receive National Awards for Trailblazing, Innovative Improvements to School Meals
WASHINGTON, March 4, 2024 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that four school districts in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, and Ohio received awards for their trailblazing and innovative efforts to improve the nutritional quality of meals for their students. This announcement was made in front of nearly 850 school nutrition professionals at the School Nutrition Association Legislative Action Conference during National School Breakfast Week.
These school districts are the first winners of Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Awards, jointly created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Action for Healthy Kids as part of USDA’s Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative, also known as HMI. These awards celebrate school districts who embrace opportunities to take their school meals to the next level. HMI is one of several ways that the Biden-Harris Administration is supporting schools to provide kids with nutritious meals that support their health and well-being.
“For many children, school meals are the healthiest, most nutritious meals in their day-to-day lives,” said Secretary Vilsack. “Investing in innovative, high quality school meals that students enjoy is one of many actions the Biden-Harris Administration is taking to improve nutrition for young Americans. At USDA, we are proud to recognize the schools that are going the extra mile in providing nutritious meals for students and helping them reach their fullest potential.”
The four awardees—Clear Lake Community School District in Iowa; Sandy Valley Local School District in Magnolia, Ohio; Petersburg School District in Alaska; and Regional School Unit 89 in Stacyville, Maine—along with 260 other small and/or rural school districts also received HMI grants last summer to enhance the nutritional quality of their school meals.
“Action for Healthy Kids would like to congratulate Clear Lake Community School District, Sandy Valley School District, Petersburg School District, and Regional School Unit 89 on the progress they’ve made in their nutrition programs this year,” said Rob Bisceglie, CEO of Action for Healthy Kids. “We applaud the staff who have worked hard to prepare fresh, appealing and delicious meals for their students.”
Learn About the Awardees
Clear Lake Community School District (Iowa) is recognized as a “Lunch Trailblazer” for reducing sodium in their menu items through creative strategies such as sourcing low- or no-sodium products, increasing the use of fresh local foods, and enhancing flavors with custom spice blends. “We’ve been hosting monthly taste tests for our students, which feature locally grown foods,” said Julie Udelhofen, food service director, Clear Lake Community School District. “These events are a wonderful opportunity to introduce our students to new produce items as well as show our students that their opinions matter to us.”
Sandy Valley Local School District (Ohio) is recognized as a “Lunch Trailblazer” for successfully lowering sodium in school lunches by procuring fresh and/or frozen meat and produce and selecting lower sodium foods for menu items. Their Student Council and Social Justice teams act as an advisory board by evaluating new school menu items and gathering feedback from their peers. The school district also conducts district-wide taste tests to gauge student interest in different scratch cooking options. “We are trying to incorporate more scratch cooking into [our] menus” says Tina Kindelberger, food service director at Sandy Valley Local School District. “Students have loved some of our new reduced sodium menu items, including the chicken queso chowder and buffalo chicken melt.”
Petersburg School District (Alaska) is receiving the “Innovation in the Preparation of School Meals” award for their commitment to creating scratch and semi-scratch foods that incorporate local and culturally relevant ingredients like moose meat, carrots, herring eggs, and kale. “We recently had the Petersburg Indian Association come into the culinary classes to help the students prepare moose roasts and a moose stock gravy,” says Carlee Johnson McIntosh, food service director, Petersburg School District. “Then, we had a lunch taste testing of the moose roasts and moose gravy for our students.”
Regional School Unit 89 (Maine) is receiving the “Innovation in Preparation of School Meals” award for incorporating more scratch cooking into menu items, such as homemade sub rolls using their oatmeal bread recipe, homemade croutons, pickles and roasted chickpeas. RSU 89 has also partnered with local farm Keep Ridge Farm in Benedicta to source produce like squash, onion, eggs, carrots and kale. They host monthly taste tests allowing the student body to determine what the next new menu item will be. “At our annual Thanksgiving meal, we featured Keep Ridge Farm roasted squash, local farmer Steve Crouse’s potatoes that we boiled and mashed, and turkey from USDA Foods in our homemade gravy and homemade stuffing,” said Denise Tapley Proctor, food service director at RSU 89. “The meal was well received by the community, and the reactions of our kids make us love the change in direction our school is making to more scratch cooking.”
For more information about the awardees, please visit the HMI Awardee Spotlight webpage.
Additional Background
These awards spotlight innovative practices, student and community engagement activities, and strategies schools have used to provide meals that are consistent with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Schools can apply for awards in a range of categories that recognize their efforts to reduce sodium and added sugars in school meals, provide nutrition education, and involve students and families in meal planning.
The Recognition Awards application is available on the HMI website. USDA and Action for Healthy Kids recently streamlined the application process to make it easier for school nutrition professionals to apply. School districts in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, or the United States Virgin Islands are eligible to apply for the Recognition Awards if they participate in the National School Lunch Program and/or School Breakfast Program. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis over a two-year period ending June 30, 2025.
School districts and others interested in learning more can join an HMI Recognition Awards Informational Webinar on Wednesday, March 6, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. ET.
USDA established the HMI Initiative as part of its commitment to investing in the future of our nation’s children. This initiative empowers schools to continue serving delicious, healthy meals, while giving students the critical nutrition they need to grow, thrive, and reach their full potential. The HMI initiative is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s actions toward implementing the White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
“We’re seeing incredible efforts and innovative accomplishments by school nutrition professionals, as they provide their students with healthy, nutritious meals,” said USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service Administrator Cindy Long. “The benefits of school meals to children are undeniable, and we are committed to doing our part to support school meal programs nationwide.”
About USDA
USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate-smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.
About Action for Healthy Kids
Action for Healthy Kids is dedicated to improving children’s health and well-being by bringing together and mobilizing educators, families, and other key stakeholders to help children lead healthy lives. Through its core programming and family-school partnerships, Action for Healthy Kids has impacted more than 20 million children in 55,000 schools nationwide to address systemic challenges in underserved communities. To learn more about its growing network of volunteers and champions, visit: actionforhealthykids.org.
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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.
A webinar for state agency and school food authority staff focused on the community eligibility provision.
FNS published this recorded webinar on Feb. 28, 2024 for state agencies. The webinar includes a summary of the new memos released in Sept. 2023 and goes into detail about best practices for unused reimbursements and site proximity.
This guidance updates previously issued questions and answers to clarify the rural non-congregate summer meals option established through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, and codified through the interim final rulemaking, Establishing the Summer EBT Program and Rural Non-congregate Option in the Summer Meal Programs.
The Community Eligibility Provision is a National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program meal service option that allows schools and school districts located in high poverty areas to offer breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students.
This rulemaking proposes important modifications to make the application of serious deficiency procedures in the Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program consistent, effective, and in line with current requirements under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act.
Improvements Coming Soon for Monitoring of Child Nutrition Programs
USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service recently published a proposed rule that will help ensure the federal child nutrition programs are being operated properly. These regulatory updates will strengthen and clarify the process for correcting major mismanagement problems, also called serious deficiencies, found in FNS’ child nutrition programs.
The proposed changes will ensure that procedures in Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program, also known as CACFP and SFSP, align with current requirements under law, by:
- Providing operators a fair path to fully correct serious mismanagement problems;
- Clarifying termination and disqualification criteria for SFSP operators;
- Addressing legal requirements for obtaining records of individuals who are disqualified from the program and sponsoring organizations that operate in multiple states;
- Establishing a serious deficiency process for unaffiliated child care and adult day care centers in CACFP.
USDA is also proposing a standard definition of what it means for an operator to be in “good standing,” which currently does not exist.
This rule is one of many steps that USDA is taking to continually bolster the integrity of the federal child nutrition programs, which help millions of children across America reach their full potential.
The public is invited to comment on the proposed changes. The comment period is open until May 21, 2024.
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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.
This notice announces the Department's annual adjustments to the Income Eligibility Guidelines to be used in determining eligibility for free and reduced price meals, free milk, and Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer benefits for the period from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.