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We often talk about how important it is for different groups including schools, nonprofits, corporations, faith communities, and others to work together end childhood hunger.  Many times children and youth are left off that list, but not today! This is your chance to get involved. We’re calling on all students, grades 1-12, to answer the question: How can you help to end childhood hunger in your community?

As students across the country get back in school and we gear up for Monday Night Football, the Fuel Up to Play 60 program is ready for another action-packed year of nutrition and fitness events. An initiative that encourages kids of all ages to be healthy and active, the overall goal of the program is to tackle childhood obesity.

In 1996, only two schools nationwide bought food directly from farmers in their region through what are called farm-to-school programs. Today, these programs exist in over 2,000 U.S. schools – and a new pilot program in Michigan and Florida could send that number ticking quickly upward.

Farm-to-school programs are a win-win-win for America’s farmers and ranchers, our students, and our schools. Last year, members of USDA’s Farm-to-School team visited fifteen schools across the country to check out their programs and were amazed by what they saw: “Kentucky Proud” signs posted next to locally-sourced food in the cafeterias of Montgomery County, KY public schools; twenty local products for lunch at schools in the Independence, IA Community School District; students at Harrisonburg, VA public schools who knew the name of the farmer supplying lettuce for their salad bar.

At Universidad Interamericana in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Inter Metro Summer Recreation Program is a vital part of the social, physical and nutritional well-being of area children.  For six years the university has sponsored the recreation and open food service site for kids  ranging in age from 5 to 16 years old.

Despite having some of the highest unemployment and home foreclosure rates in New Jersey, the city of Perth Amboy refuses to let kids go hungry over the summer.  In 2011 the city extended the Summer Food Service Program by two weeks and added 20 new feeding sites.  Through an aggressive marketing effort using local newspapers, businesses, cable TV access programming and schools to advertise site locations and activities, Perth Amboy has made providing meals to kids when school’s out a top priority.

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog:

On August 4, the Farmers Market by the White House was bustling with individuals celebrating World Breastfeeding Week and National Farmers Market Week. The festival’s purpose was to recognize the value of farmers markets and the role that nutritious fruits and vegetables play in promoting wellness.

The “Food, Fun and Sun!” Contest is in full swing and submissions are rolling in to beat the submission deadline of August 20.  The USDA Food and Nutrition Service launched the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) Story and Photo contest as a way to collect promising practices of the SFSP around the four target categories of the contest:

Here at FNS, we are working hard to increase breastfeeding rates through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. One of the ways we’re doing this is by using peer counselors who can provide more effective support to other breastfeeding mothers.

In July, I attended the “Breastfeeding Peer Counseling” course, which was hosted by the Food and Nutrition Service’s Southwest Regional Office and a nonprofit organization called Every Mother Inc. This organization provides counseling, lactation training and resources, and it was great to have them on hand for the training.  We also drew on the expertise of the national WIC staff, which directs the WIC program in serving over 9 million women, infants and children each month.

With summer in full swing, my colleagues and I had the opportunity to visit Summer Food Service sites in Indian Country.  Our journey landed us first at a Bureau of Indian Education school in Eagle Butte, South Dakota on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation.  Eagle Butte is about 170 miles northeast of Rapid City, SD and home to a Seamless Summer site in full operation, serving over 200 kids daily breakfast and lunch.

Puerto Rico’s agriculture has been steadily declining and imports total 85 percent of the food consumed on the island. Additionally, almost all of the $11 million per year that USDA purchases for use in Puerto Rico’s school meals are purchased from companies in the continental United States.  What’s more, each year the island’s School Food Authority purchases about $80 million in food to be served in school.  We saw these as opportunities for local farmers and decided to do something about it.

The Market Expansion Conference, held June 23-24 in San Juan, teamed seven U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies and other Commonwealth and federal partners to show over 250 farmers how to sell food to local schools, expand their businesses and increase their participation in USDA programs.  Puerto Rico’s milk farmers, cattle ranchers, pineapple growers and many others eagerly listened to USDA experts explain grading and licensing, and provide information in the areas of funding and procurement.