Newsroom

FNS today announced $26 million in new grants to support schools’ efforts to serve nutritious and delicious foods to students. Headlining the new investments are nearly $6.5 million in grants that will increase healthy foods in the school meals marketplace by supporting collaboration between schools, food producers and suppliers, and other partners.

Secretary Tom Vilsack announced major steps to promote the health of America’s children through school meals. Nutrition standards for school meals will be gradually updated to include less sugar and flexibility with menu planning between Fall 2025 and Fall 2027. The Department arrived at these changes after listening closely to public feedback and considering the latest science-based recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 

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.

The USDA Northeast Region announced today two new grant opportunities available through the School Food System Transformation Challenge Sub-Grants, part of USDA’s Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative.

USDA is marking the end of 2023 by highlighting on-the-ground projects and partnerships that are building economic prosperity for farmers, families, and communities nationwide. 

USDA and the Food Research & Action Center 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.

Today, USDA released the Household Food Security in the United States in 2022 report, which examined American households’ ability to access sufficient food last year. 

This week, USDA joined students, parents/caregivers, schools, communities, and partners across the country in recognizing National School Lunch Week, as proclaimed by President Biden. October is also Farm to School Month, which recognizes the benefits of incorporating healthy, locally grown foods into school meals.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today visited Annandale Terrace Elementary School in Annandale, Virginia, where he unveiled two new grant opportunities plus a training and technical assistance partnership to help schools continue to invest in nutritious school meals.

USDA today announced that it is giving an estimated 3,000 more school districts in high-need areas the option to serve breakfast and lunch to all students at no cost, by expanding the availability of the Community Eligibility Provision, commonly known as CEP.

FNS announced today that it will interpret the prohibition on discrimination based on sex found in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and in the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, as amended, SNAP to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. 

Secretary Sonny Perdue today announced a range of nationwide flexibilities to ensure America’s children receive the nutritious food they need throughout the upcoming school year. These waivers give states, schools, and childcare providers time to plan for how they will serve children in the fall, including allowing for new and innovative feeding options as the nation recovers from the coronavirus.

Secretary Sonny Perdue has sworn in Brandon Lipps as FNCS Deputy Under Secretary and Pam Miller as the FNS Administrator.

Secretary Sonny Perdue met today with leaders from around the country to explore new ways to help low-income Americans access nutritious food and move to an independent and self-sufficient future.