Blog

On January 15-16, 2023, I attended the School Nutrition Industry Conference in San Diego. There, I met with many of our food industry partners that deliver food to school districts across the country. Food industry partners play a crucial role in producing, procuring and delivering food for our school meal programs. Despite the challenges that industry and school food service operators have encountered over the past few years, we are grateful for everything they do to deliver food and serve nutritious meals to tens of millions of children every day.

Fifty years after the creation of National Agriculture Day, America’s farmers, ranchers and private forestland owners find themselves on the front lines of climate change. They are uniquely positioned to deliver solutions by implementing climate-smart practices that conserve natural resources, build healthier soils, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and sequester carbon.

USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service supports indigenous health and tribal sovereignty through Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations Self-Determination Demonstration Projects.

Female farmers and ranchers in the United States play an integral role in providing agricultural products to our nation and the world. During Women’s History Month, we celebrate the 1.2 million female producers around the country.

Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law by President Biden in August 2022, directs USDA to provide financial assistance to producers who have experienced discrimination in USDA’s farm lending programs. This program provides USDA the ability to deliver financial assistance for those farmers, ranchers, or forest landowners determined to have experienced discrimination in USDA's farm lending programs prior to January 1, 2021. These funds are one step in the long march towards justice and an inclusive, equitable USDA.

As a Latina woman, raised in a black community by a single white mother, Poppy Sias-Hernandez understands how access to equitable support and resources can have a life changing impact.

I recently had the opportunity to join my daughter for breakfast at her school. Every morning, she asks me what’s on the menu for her school’s breakfast. And that morning was no different. The moment I told her, they were serving mini pancakes – her favorite – with craisins and applesauce, she couldn’t wait to get to school.

This past February, I attended the Urban School Food Alliance winter meeting in Los Angeles, California, which included Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) sessions focused on child nutrition programs. Participants, which included food service directors from around the country, had the opportunity to ask questions about the child nutrition programs they administer, including the recent updates. Engaging with program leaders and seeing what child nutrition programs look like ‘on the ground’ is important to us. In addition to learning from the group, the meeting was a reminder of the many partners we have that share a common goal of continuing to elevate the role that healthy meals play in schools and for our children’s future.

Several studies consistently link poor access to food to poor health outcomes, including heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. Project Bread, a Massachusetts’ nonprofit focused on permanently solving food insecurity, teamed up with MassHealth to pilot the Flexible Services Program, or FSP, to bolster food security and meet nutritional needs from birth throughout childhood and beyond, improving health outcomes at every stage of life. Since April 2020, over 7,000 MassHealth members (ranging in age from 0 months to 64 years) with complex health issues were given an array of food resources, including gift cards for groceries, cooking supplies, refrigerators, cooking classes, transportation assistance, and nutrition education.

Deep fat frying is often cut out when people want to eat healthy. But, for those who enjoy fried foods, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has created a healthier oil.