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When Chicago heard about First Lady Michelle Obama’s effort to match chefs with schools, the city popped! Inspired by a unique partnership between locally-based Healthy Schools Campaign and Chicago Public Schools, the city saw an impressive number of Second City chefs sign up to participate in the effort.

I had the honor of participating in the kick-off of Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 12.  I say it was an honor because of the importance of the project and the dedication and sincerity of the partners who have come together to make it happen.

Across the nation, schools are responding to the Let’s Move! initiative by providing students with a wide range of healthy food choices.  But making the healthy option available is not enough—it’s not nutrition unless children select it and eat it. So the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is complementing these efforts with research on how to encourage children to make healthful food choices at school, drawing on the new field of behavioral economics.  We recently announced a $1 million USDA-funded award to establish the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Program. Headed by David Just and Brian Wansink, the Center will lead, coordinate and disseminate research that applies behavioral economics to child nutrition program operations and activities.

Today, USDA’s Economic Research Service released the report “Household Food Security in the United States 2009,” and reported that 17.4 million households had difficulty providing enough food due to a lack of resources, about the same as in 2008. In more than a third of those households, at least one member did not get enough to eat at some time during the year and normal eating patterns were disrupted due to limited resources.

I was thrilled to stand in the Civic Center in Pelham, Ala., on October 29^th to celebrate the State of Alabama’s great accomplishment of 52 Alabama Public Schools meeting USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge.  Alabama has received 39, more than half of HealthierUS School Challenge Gold Awards of Distinction that have been awarded in the nation.  Two schools received HealthierUS School Challenge Gold Awards, seven silver and four bronze.

Last week I attended a rollicking event on Chicago’s West Side.  Healthy Schools Campaign’s Cooking Up Change event—a benefit and competition between students to create healthy and tasty school meals—was attended by over 600 enthusiastic high schoolers, community leaders, local government leaders and Chicagoans with an interest in improving school meals.

Recently, I had the privilege of visiting Northern Mississippi to recognize two schools for meeting USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge (HUSSC). I stopped at Pope Elementary/Junior High School in Pope, Miss. and met with and congratulated the cafeteria and other staff for achieving a Bronze Award.  I then traveled to Grenada Upper Elementary School in Grenada, Miss., for an assembly where I recognized the school for earning a Gold Award.

I recently had the opportunity to spend some time at the Crossroads Farmers Market in Takoma Park, Md.  The market’s motto is, “Bringing fresh, local, healthy food to individuals of all incomes and backgrounds,” something we consistently support at the USDA.  Just last week Crossroads received a $50,724 grant from The Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) to spread this message throughout a network of markets in Maryland, and I enjoyed seeing all the enthusiasm there on a glorious day in October.

There is new hope for more families in Clarksville, TN thanks to a larger WIC clinic opening to service expectant and new mothers and their children. WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, provides Federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk I had the opportunity to go to Clarksville, Tenn., near Fort Campbell, Ky., to participate in a ceremony announcing the renovation of a portion of the Montgomery County Health Department which will now be a new “WIC Wing”.  The current WIC facility located several miles away is at capacity and the 10,000 square feet of new space will allow the Montgomery County Health Department to expand and serve new families and will improve WIC Program access.  Because of the co-location, WIC participants will also be able to take better advantage of other health services.

Improving the nutrition and health of their students is a high priority for the staff at CentroNia- operated Bilingual Public Charter School (PCS) in Washington, DC.  This was clear to me after I joined them to celebrate the salad bar donated to them by the Dole Food Company and United Fresh Produce Association.  The event, also attended by DC-based celebrity Chefs Cathal Armstrong and Spike Mendelsohn, showcased the school’s deep commitment to the health and welfare of the school’s children and our nation’s next great generation.