USDA Hosts Largest Federal-Led Summit in Support of Healthy School Meals

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 22, 2024 – USDA kicked off its Fall 2024 Healthy Meals Summit today, the largest gathering of school nutrition partners ever convened by the federal government. The summit will both celebrate the healthy school meals being served across the country and equip schools with tools and best practices to elevate the nutritional quality of their meals.

“School nutrition professionals and partners are the experts on feeding children nutritious and delicious meals, and we’re thrilled to provide them with a learning laboratory to share proven strategies and take them back to their communities,” said Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Cindy Long. “This summit is one of the many ways the Department is delivering on its commitment to improve the quality of the meals served to children every school day and set kids up to thrive early in life and beyond.” Long added that K–12 schools serve nutritious breakfasts and lunches to about 30 million children every school day.

The Healthy Meals Summits are one of many components of USDA’s $100 million Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative, also known as HMI, which also includes the HMI Recognition Awards for improvements in meal quality, grants to improve meal quality in small and/or rural school districts, and the School Food System Transformation Challenge Subgrants to spark innovation and collaboration in the school food marketplace.

New HMI Grant Opportunity Opens

At today’s summit, USDA announced the opening of a new School Food System Transformation Grant that will provide up to $8.5 million to foster partnerships that improve school food systems and food options available to students. The first phase of the project awarded a total of $1.67 million in grants to 12 school districts to help them establish partnerships that make it easier for them to buy local foods.

"We are excited to be launching this second phase of the project, designed to support large team-based projects that promote innovation in school meals, said Lindsey Turner, director of Project SCALES and the Center for School and Community Partnerships at Boise State University.”

School districts participating in USDA’s National School Lunch Program and food industry partners are invited to apply through Dec. 13, 2024. Learn more on the Project SCALES website.

More about the Fall 2024 Healthy Meals Summit

Pre-summit festivities began yesterday with the School Meals Cooking Challenge, a competitive cooking event featuring teams of high school students from the Pro Start Culinary Arts program, who were paired with professional chefs from the Chef Ann Foundation. The winning team was Prinz Villagracia from Rancho High School in Las Vegas and Chef Bethany Markee, which won with the nutritious and delicious dish of Thai Tofu Tacos and Spicy Mexican Carrots.

The summit will continue through tomorrow and will feature an interactive exhibit hall with the sights and smells of school lunchrooms; enriching informational sessions; and remarks from Curtis Aikens, celebrity chef and author, and Deonna Smith, author and former educator.

Many school districts attending the summit have either won an HMI Recognition Award or received an HMI grant for small and/or rural school districts. Check out the HMI Cafeteria Chronicles to read their inspiring stories.

The summit comes on the heels of National School Lunch Week, which USDA marked by highlighting a series of actions to support school meals through nutritious, domestic, foods, including a new investment of $500 million for schools to purchase local, unprocessed foods and strengthen connections with local farmers and producers.

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.

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