Washington, DC, Oct. 11, 2022 – The Biden-Harris Administration at the moment supplied $50 million in grants for faculties to put money into new meals service tools that can permit them to proceed serving nutritious meals. Today’s funding provides to the $30 million in tools grants that the administration gave faculties earlier this 12 months. This announcement comes as USDA stands with companions and advocates within the youngster diet group to have fun National School Lunch Week (October 10-14), a time to acknowledge the vital diet that college meals present to tens of hundreds of thousands of youngsters each faculty day. The added help for college meals and youngster diet builds on the momentum from final month’s White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, the place the administration unveiled a National Strategy to finish starvation and cut back diet-related illness by 2030. “Ensuring entry to nutritious faculty meals is among the finest investments we will make in our combat to finish youngster starvation and enhance well being,” stated Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “As we have fun the valiant efforts of faculty diet professionals throughout the nation this National School Lunch Week, USDA is doubling down on our dedication to serving to faculties overcome challenges together with increased meals costs and continued provide chain disruptions. These extra assets will permit faculties to supply wholesome, interesting meals by assembly very important meals service tools wants.” USDA gives grant funds to states (see: state-by-state breakdown), which use a aggressive utility course of to award them to highschool districts that take part within the National School Lunch Program. School districts can use the funds to buy upgraded tools that can help: • Serving more healthy meals, together with these sourced from native meals; Here are just a few testimonials about how the tools grants have improved meals service for college districts across the nation: • Better Food Preparation and Visually Appealing Meals (Hoke County Schools, Raeford, North Carolina) – “The grant has afforded us the opportunity to purchase new and updated equipment for our school kitchens. Students eat with their eyes and when the food looks good, they eat more. We purchased warming cabinets and reach-in refrigerators for our middle and high schools to put behind our serving lines, which has helped with serving our complex menu items. We have increased our participation at these schools because students do not have to wait long for their meals. The equipment that has really assisted our program the past two years have been Blast Chillers, which allow us to quickly cool down our foods. The ultimate goal for Hoke County Schools is to provide the highest quality menu food items to all students and with this equipment, we are able to accomplish this goal.” – Deborah Carpenter, youngster diet government director, Hoke County Schools • More Scratch Cooking Thanks to New Dishwasher (Iowa-Grant School District, Livingston, Wisconsin) – “We replaced a 63-year-old dishwasher with a new, more efficient dishwasher that allows more time for food preparation. We have increased scratch cooking in our kitchen, which in turn increases the number of dishes we wash. Now, we can prepare foods like homemade granola for breakfast and cheesy broccoli soup for lunch – we would never have done that in the past. The new dishwasher is crucial to allowing the time and dishwashing capacity we need to continue increasing the amount of fresh meals we cook in our kitchen.” – Barbara Hugill, Food Service Supervisor, Iowa-Grant High School • Prepare Local Produce with Steamers (Boyne Falls Public School, Boyne Falls, Michigan) – “We were able to use our funds to purchase a new steamer for our kitchen. Since the installation, we have been able to provide a variety of locally sourced vegetables in the most appealing and healthy way possible, including beets, string beans, brussels sprouts! The kids have been happy to see these types of veggies because of how fresh and vibrant the veggies look. Additionally, it is a much easier and efficient process because we do not have to blanch the vegetables in large, heavy pots of boiling water and transfer around the kitchen. That was a process that could take up to an hour; now, we are getting better results in ten minutes! At the end of the day, we need to prepare in large batches with little labor. This equipment has fit the bill perfectly and we are grateful for it.” – Nathan Bates, Chef, Boyne Falls Public School These grants are solely the newest in a sequence of efforts the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to financially help faculty meals and guarantee our nation’s kids are nutritionally safe. Last month, USDA launched the primary section of a $100 million Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative, which is able to award grants for small and rural faculties to enhance their meal high quality. The request for functions is open to all nongovernmental organizations by means of Nov. 28, 2022. Later this 12 months, FNS will announce the second and ultimate section of the initiative that can increase nutritious meals choices for college meals by means of collaboration with meals trade companions. The administration can be investing in youngster diet extra broadly. Last month, USDA issued a ultimate rule that improves kids’s entry to USDA’s Summer Food Service Program by means of streamlining and strengthening program operations. USDA additionally authorized households of almost 33 million kids to obtain summertime youngster meals advantages of $391 per youngster for summer season 2022, with increased quantities in Alaska, Hawaii, and US territories. These advantages by means of the Summer P-EBT program are serving to households cowl meals prices from the summer season months when faculties have been out of session. This announcement is a part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. The National Strategy gives a roadmap of actions the federal authorities will take to finish starvation and cut back diet-related illnesses by 2030 – all whereas decreasing disparities. The National Strategy was launched along side the primary White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in over 50 years, hosted by President Biden on September 28, 2022. USDA touches the lives of all Americans every day in so many optimistic methods. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is remodeling America’s meals system with a larger give attention to extra resilient native and regional meals manufacturing, selling competitors and fairer markets for all producers, making certain entry to protected, wholesome and nutritious meals in all communities, constructing new markets and streams of revenue for farmers and producers utilizing climate-smart meals and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clear vitality capabilities in rural America, and committing to fairness throughout the Department by eradicating systemic obstacles and constructing a workforce extra consultant of America . To be taught extra, go to www.usda.gov. from https://vegetablesnow.com/usda-invests-80mm-to-enhance-diet-in-class-meals/
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