Search

October is more than a time for crisp temperatures and vibrant autumn leaves. It’s also Farm to School Month, when USDA joins schools, farms, and community organizations across the country to celebrate the role of farm to school programs in getting healthy, locally grown foods onto children’s trays...

With a desire to create healthy relationships between American children and food, a group of chefs created Pilot Light in 2010. This program partners with Pre K–12 teachers to make food education a part of everyday classroom lessons. Through holistic food education, students learn about the...

School lunch sometimes gets a bad rap. But I am here to tell you that school lunch is amazing and looks a lot different than what you may remember if you’re a kid of the 90s, like me.

On August 14-19, my leadership team and I traveled to Guam and the Commonwealth of Northern Marianna Islands (CNMI) to meet with the territories’ leadership, Superintendents and Commissioners, that administer USDA food assistance programs. We discussed the challenges of transitioning back to pre...

Like many of our USDA colleagues across the country, federal staff from the Food and Nutrition Service were glued in last week to the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. Many attended in-person to contribute ideas and host the event alongside White House staff, and hundreds more...

It’s an exciting day in the country as we kickoff the second, historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. It’s been more than 50 years since the last conference, which produced impactful, meaningful changes to improve USDA nutrition assistance programs, including SNAP, WIC, and...

It’s eight in the morning, and farmers with hand hoes and buckets have been here for two hours already, weeding and watering their plots before the heat of the day. Over 200 members of the Somali Bantu community of Lewiston, Maine, make the short drive out to Liberation Farms a few times each week...

In May 2022, FNS Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Dr. Patty Bennett joined Maryland Department of Aging Deputy Secretary Bernice Hutchinson and other nutrition partners at Sandtown Winchester Senior Center in West Baltimore to promote “ My Groceries to Go,” the Commodity Supplemental Food Program...

They called the next participant; a woman and her child exited the waiting area to meet at my desk. I introduced myself and asked, “How are you doing today?” She reluctantly answered, “good” with disinterest in her eyes. I detected a Spanish accent which prompted me to ask which language she...

Discrimination in any form is unacceptable, and we cannot allow it to prevent a hungry person from getting the food they need. At USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), we work to ensure that all those who are eligible for USDA’s nutrition assistance programs have equal access and opportunity to...