USDA is supporting schools with 5.5-million dollars in new grants to provide school lunches and breakfasts that give children the nutrition they need to learn and grow. More than 90-percent of schools are successfully meeting new meal nutrition standards – serving meals with more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean protein and low-fat dairy, and less sodium and fat. With a focus on implementation of Smarter Lunchroom strategies – a broad toolkit of practices designed to increase consumption of healthier foods and decrease plate waste – the new grants will provide support to schools to help them achieve or continue to meet those standards. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says strategies like Smarter Lunchrooms give schools simple, actionable, low-cost steps that make sure the healthy food on kids’ plates ends up in their stomachs. He says the grants announced Wednesday are part of the department’s ongoing commitment to give states and schools the resources and flexibility they need as they help make the healthy choice the easy choice for America’s youth.
The Smarter Lunchrooms movement was developed by Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs with funding from USDA and others. The grants are being released as part of USDA’s Team Nutrition initiative – designed to support state-level child nutrition programs through training and technical assistance. For more information on these grants and upcoming grant-writing webinars – visit www.fns.usda.gov. Look for the Team Nutrition link on the left-hand side of the page. Visit www.grants.gov to apply for the grants.
Source: NAFB News Service