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.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2023 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) have teamed up to competitively award five organizations a total of $1.1 million to research barriers to equitable access in the federal child nutrition programs and identify strategies to eliminate them. The effort is funded by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service through a cooperative agreement with FRAC.

“The Biden-Harris Administration believes all Americans deserve to have consistent and equitable access to nutritious foods, and reaching that goal starts with our children,” said Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Consumer and Nutrition Services Stacy Dean. “USDA and FRAC’s investments in this critical research are a major step to ensuring our programs reach all eligible children across this country and help them reach their full potential.”

USDA and FRACs efforts to improve food security for school children and children in childcare settings are critical to fueling the health and development of our nation’s children. These programs, which include USDA’s National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Summer Nutrition Programs, and Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), and the At-Risk Afterschool Meal Program, are proven to be instrumental in reducing childhood hunger, decreasing childhood obesity, improving child nutrition and wellness, supporting academic achievement, and enhancing child development and school readiness.

“The child nutrition programs are crucial for children’s well-being, yet many still miss out on the benefits,” said Luis Guardia, president of FRAC. “It’s time to innovate and ensure equitable access to ensure that every child’s health and nutritional needs are met. FRAC is excited to deepen its partnership with the USDA and support this diverse group of organizations as they tackle common program participation barriers associated with the child nutrition programs.”

A significant number of eligible children are either not participating in the programs or do not have programs available to them. The services delivered can vary by community, which could make inequities for historically and currently marginalized communities worse.

The Equitable Access in Child Nutrition Programs project will support research on barriers to participation and equitable delivery of service. This effort is made up of diverse subgrantees, including a public health department, institutions, and community-based organizations:

• Johns Hopkins University: The university will create new measures of school meal quality with an equity lens, including the perceived quality of school meals and cultural relevance of school meals through the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program.
• Trustees of Indiana University: The university will study disparities in CACFP participation and the inequities contributing to CACFP use among center-based Early Care and Education providers.
• San Antonio Metropolitan Health District: The public health agency will investigate the systemic barriers and social and environmental factors that prevent Black and Latino youth (ages 12-18) in low-income and low food access areas of San Antonio from participating in the Summer Food Service Program and Afterschool Meal Program.
• Hunger Solutions Minnesota: The nonprofit will investigate the impact of Minnesota’s Free School Meals for All program on Black, American Indians, and Latinx youth, including the positive effects of the program and the barriers that students face accessing school meals.
• Feeding Kentucky: The nonprofit will research the barriers that exist on the state agency, sponsor, and site level in accessing summer meals (including non-congregate meals) and Summer EBT, with a specific focus on rural access.

Visit frac.org/equitableaccesscn to learn more about the project and subgrant awardees.

About USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service

USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service works to end hunger and improve food and nutrition security through a suite of 16 nutrition assistance programs, such as the school breakfast and lunch programs, WIC and SNAP. Together, these programs serve 1 in 4 Americans over the course of a year, promoting consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, and affordable food essential to optimal health and well-being. FNS also provides science-based nutrition recommendations through the co-development of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. FNS’s report, “Leveraging the White House Conference to Promote and Elevate Nutrition Security: The Role of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service,” highlights ways the agency will support the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Strategy, released in conjunction with the historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in September 2022. To learn more about FNS, visit www.fns.usda.gov and follow @USDANutrition.

About the Food Research & Action Center

The Food Research & Action Center improves the nutrition, health, and well-being of people struggling against poverty-related hunger in the United States through advocacy, partnerships, and by advancing bold and equitable policy solutions. To learn more, visit FRAC.org and follow us on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.

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

Applications are now open for the School Food Systems Transformation Challenge Sub-Grants, which is part of USDA’s Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative.

These grants will transform the K-12 school food marketplace by increasing collaboration between school districts, food producers, suppliers, distributors, and/or community partners. Students can expect to see improvements in the quality of food on their plates, thanks to these new efforts.

FNS encourages all eligible applicants to consider applying for one or both grant opportunities:

• Supporting Community Agriculture and Local Education Systems (Project SCALES): Led by the Center for School and Community Partnerships at Boise State University, these projects will increase the procurement of locally sourced foods by developing innovative partnerships between schools and producers; growers; and processors. In addition, schools will be supported in the preparation of the foods and promoting them to students. Project SCALES was awarded $16.1 million and will provide two cohorts with sub-grants of up to $150,000 each (70 total). Two informational webinars on this grant opportunity will be held on Dec. 6, 2023 (English) and Dec. 13, 2023 (Spanish). Applications for the first cohort will close on Jan. 26, 2024. Applications for the second cohort will open in 2025.
• Partnerships for Local Agriculture & Nutrition Transformation in Schools (PLANTS): Led by Chef Ann Foundation, these projects will support regional efforts to expand scratch-cooked meal programs, increase equity, foster a resilient supply chain, and create scalable and sustainable change for school districts across the country. Chef Ann Foundation’s PLANTS was awarded $7.8 million and will provide sub-grants of $500,000-$600,000 to each of eight awardees. These grants will increase opportunities for regional small- and mid-scale producers, aggregators, and processors to become part of the K-12 school food market. An informational webinar on this grant opportunity will be held on Nov. 29, 2023. Applications close on Jan. 22, 2024.

Applications for sub-grants managed by two other organizations – Full Plates Full Potential and Illinois Public Health Institute – will open in early 2024. Collectively, the four organizations were awarded $50 million by USDA to administer these sub-grants.

Eligible organizations are encouraged to check the USDA’s Healthy Meals Incentives website to learn more about the School Food Systems Transformation Challenge Sub-Grants. For updates, sign up for the bi-monthly newsletter at the bottom right of the USDA Team Nutrition website.