This Report to Congress from USDA responds to a requirement established by the 2018 Farm Bill to address requirements to coordinate efforts within USDA to reduce barriers to food access. USDA has identified FNS as the Food Access Liaison to coordinate efforts and annually respond to this request. The report describes activities that occurred from October 2020 through September 2023 to reduce barriers to food access given the last such annual report submitted in March 2021 covered fiscal year 2020
The 2023 Farm to School Census collected information on farm to school participation by school food authorities (SFAs) in school year 2022–23. Every SFA participating in the National School Lunch Program in the 50 states, Washington, DC, and five territories received an online survey asking about the farm to school activities they participated in, details of their participation, and their perspectives on farm to school.
WIC has been serving families for more than 50 years. To ensure that WIC continues to get results, the program must modernize.
The purpose of the authors’ study was to examine the role of contributing factors in school foodborne outbreaks. Contamination factors accounted for the greatest proportion (49.2%) of outbreaks involving some level of food handling interaction by a school food service worker, followed by proliferation (34.9%) and survival factors (15.9%). Over 56% of all illnesses were associated with norovirus and food service worker practices.
The purpose of the descriptive retrospective study discussed in this article was to analyze data collected within the Electronic Foodborne Outbreak Reporting System (eFORS) in school settings in order to examine the magnitude of foodborne disease etiologies and to recommend strategies for prevention.