Skip to main content
Skip to main content

Food and Nutrition


Farm to School Goes Year Round in the Northeast

October 07, 2016 Danielle Fleury, USDA Northeast Regional Farm to School Lead and Katina Kefalas, Program Specialist, USDA Food and Nutrition Service Northeast Regional Office

Over the past few summers, sponsors of USDA’s Summer Meals Programs have been elevating meal quality and encouraging program participation by serving seasonal menus, utilizing high quality ingredients, and providing nutrition education activities. We’ve heard of such farm to summer activities – the...

Food and Nutrition

Back to School with Student-Led Smarter Lunchrooms

October 06, 2016 Alicia White, MS, RD, Chief Nutrition Education and Promotion Branch, Child Nutrition Programs, Food and Nutrition Service

Teenagers at several schools across the country are working together with school nutrition staff to make changes to the school cafeteria. Informed by Smarter Lunchrooms’ research, these students are promoting healthful foods to their peers and having a say in menu offerings. Team Nutrition Training...

Initiatives Food and Nutrition

New SNAP E&T Initiatives Aim to Help SNAP Participants Find Jobs

October 05, 2016 Kevin Concannon, USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services

Getting a good job these days takes more than good intentions because today’s jobs require a higher level of skills than ever before. This is why the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s Employment and Training Program (SNAP E&T), administered by states across the country, has such an...

Initiatives Food and Nutrition

MyPlate, MyState Helps You Bring the Joy of Local Foods to the Classroom

October 05, 2016 David Herring, Campaign Manager, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion

Hello Teachers of America! Are you looking for resources for your classes that combine topics such as food and nutrition, farmers and farmers markets, and your state’s agriculture? The USDA Center for Nutrition Policy & Promotion (CNPP) – the group responsible for MyPlate – recently launched MyPlate...

Initiatives Food and Nutrition

National Farm to School Month Highlights Benefits to America's Students and Communities

October 03, 2016 Deborah Kane, Director, Office of Community Food Systems, Food and Nutrition Service

It’s National Farm to School Month and USDA’s Office of Community Food Systems is here to help…and not just in October! All year long, we offer research, grants, training and technical assistance to help connect child nutrition programs with local foods. Here’s why. Farm to school helps form healthy...

Food and Nutrition

New SNAP Pilot Provides Grocery Delivery for Homebound Disabled, Elderly

September 30, 2016 Kevin Concannon, USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services

Cross-posted from the Disability.gov blog: Your neighborhood grocer may be conveniently located just a few short blocks away. But for many persons with disabilities and the elderly participating in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the...

Food and Nutrition

SNAP Participation Shows Marked Decline

September 27, 2016 Audrey Rowe, Administrator, USDA's Food and Nutrition Service

The number of people participating in USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has been declining now for several years from a high of nearly 48 million people back in 2013 to a little more than 43 million in June. That is a drop of about 4.4 million people. This downward trend is...

Food and Nutrition

The Annual Harvest Challenge: Student Teams Supported by Chefs Move to Schools and Farm to School

September 26, 2016 Mydina Thabet and Erika Pijai, Child Nutrition Programs, USDA Food and Nutrition Service

Cross-posted from the Let's Move blog: The annual Harvest Challenge, menu planning and cooking event for high school students, is an important example of how aspiring chefs get started and learn to create winning recipes. This exciting contest, which is now going into its 8 th year, challenges teams...

Food and Nutrition Initiatives

West Virginia: After the Flooding Neighbors Helping Neighbors Get the Food They Need

September 16, 2016 Eliot DeLaCruz Kriviski, Program Analyst, Food and Nutrition Service

It was late July in Greenbrier County, W.Va., almost one month to the day since torrential rain and flooding struck most of the state. In response to the disaster, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service approved the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR)...

Conservation Food and Nutrition

Think Nutrition as High School Students Return to School

September 15, 2016 Corey Holland, RD, Nutritionist Consultant, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion; and Maya E. Maroto, EdD, MPH, RD, Nutritionist, Child Nutrition Programs, Food and Nutrition Service

The start of the school year is a great time to get high school students thinking about the nutrition and physical activity choices they make. USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) and Team Nutrition have a variety of resources available to support high school educators as they...

Food and Nutrition
Subscribe to Food and Nutrition

AskUSDA

One central entry point for you to access information and help from USDA.