We established the Healthy Meals Incentives (HMI) Initiative, in partnership with Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK), to improve the nutritional quality of school meals through food systems transformation, school food authority (SFA) recognition and technical assistance, the generation and sharing of innovative ideas and tested practices, and grants.
Key Activities
HMI Grants for Small and/or Rural SFAs
Award grants to SFAs, reaching students in some of our nation's highest need schools.
HMI Recognition Awards for SFAs
Offer recognition awards to celebrate SFAs making improvements to the nutritional quality of school meals.
School Food System Transformation Challenge Subgrants
Support collaborative projects to stimulate the creation of a resilient and nutritious school food system.
Healthy Meals Summits
Offer a space to highlight and share best practices and strategies for sustaining achievements.
Cafeteria Chronicles
Explore stories that shine a spotlight on school districts across the nation that are transforming school meals.
Additional Information
The Healthy Meals Incentives activities noted above are expected to increase utilization, and thereby demand, for nutritious agricultural commodities, such as whole grains, vegetables, legumes, and fruits as well as food products that reflect various cultures. These efforts are also positioned to strengthen small and rural school food authorities’ access to nutritious agricultural commodities through food systems transformation and grants to small and rural school food authorities.
The collection and sharing of best practices regarding school food authorities’ use of nutritious agricultural commodities in school meals, as well as the incentivization of practices such as nutrition education (including farm to school nutrition education), use of local agricultural products in scratch cooking, and the development of culturally-diverse school meal menu items is also expected to indirectly benefit producers that supply food products to schools.