Updated School Meal Standards: working towards a common goal of healthy children and helping them reach their full potential.
School meals will continue to include fruits and vegetables, emphasize whole grains, and give kids the right balance of nutrients for healthy, tasty meals. For the first time, schools will focus on products with less added sugar, especially in school breakfast.
School nutrition professionals continue to make school meals the healthiest meals children eat in a day! To take school meals to the next level, USDA is updating the school nutrition standards after considering recommendations from the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans and listening to a diverse range of voices with experience in child nutrition and health.
Here's how the WIC food packages are changing.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children – also known as WIC – supports maternal and child health by providing nutritious supplemental foods, nutrition education, breastfeeding promotion and support, and referrals to important health care and other social services.
Healthy Eating Index scores range from 0 to 100 and are a measure of diet quality used to assess how well a set of foods aligns with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A higher score is ideal. The FDPIR Food Package scores an 84. This is higher than the average U.S. diet, which scores a 59.
SNAP healthy incentive programs encourage healthy eating by making nutritious food more accessible and affordable through coupons, discounts, gift cards, bonus items, or extra funds.
USDA is committed to helping states provide food benefits to children through Summer P-EBT to ensure kids are nourished and healthy
To help those most in need receive healthy, fresh foods, USDA will be offering boxes of pre-packed, mixed fresh produce though The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), in addition to the single varieties that are already available to order.
The sharing gallery is a source of inspiration and sharing of nutrition education materials, recipes, photos, news, grant opportunities, and other resources for ITOs participating in FDPIR.