Did you know that on any given school day nearly 30 million children rely on USDA’s School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program? These programs are critical in providing nutritious foods that help ensure nutrition security throughout the school year. However, when summer rolls around and schools close, these children are left without access to these healthy meals. That is why USDA’s SUN Meals (Summer Food Service Program) are so important! By ensuring that children continue to receive nutritious meals, SUN Meals play a huge part in increasing food security during the summer months.

SUN Meals Program sponsors, like schools and community organizations, help kids thrive by providing meals and snacks at no cost at schools, parks, and other neighborhood locations. They create exciting menu options and offer fun activities, which help kids stay healthy during the summer. Every year, USDA recognizes SUN Meals Program sponsors who go above and beyond with their creativity. The USDA’s Turnip the Beet Award presents outstanding sponsors with gold, silver, and bronze awards. Winners are featured on the Turnip the Beet webpage and receive a certificate. The award recognizes sponsors for menu variety, exceeding SUN meals nutrition requirements and guidelines, offering culturally appropriate foods, and nutrition education activities, like cooking, gardening, farming, and more. Since summer is the peak growing season in many regions, the award also recognizes sponsors that bring the season’s harvest to meals by incorporating locally grown, raised, or caught foods. And here at the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program, we love to see local foods on all menus!

Chesterfield County Public Schools (CCPS), a 2023 Turnip the Beet Gold Award Winner, is a great example of a school district in Virginia focused on incorporating local foods into summer meal programs. CCPS takes summer meals to the next level with its Summer Wednesdays program. Last year, CCPS and the Chesterfield County Farmers Market welcomed children to experience fresh and local foods. Every Wednesday, CCPS and the farmers’ market feeding site provided lunches made with Virginia’s nutritious and delicious summer bounty, putting federal food dollars into local farmers’ pockets. It also improved food literacy through nutrition education activities. Over the course of Summer Wednesdays, from June 28th through August 9th, CCPS served over 475 meals, showcasing a variety of local produce, beef, eggs, and honey. Each week, CCPS staff highlighted a farmer with a “Meet the Producer” poster that featured the producer of the week and facts about the product they contributed. The festive atmosphere, with pop-up tents and picnic blankets, added fun for the whole family. CCPS Assistant Director of Food and Nutrition Services Casey Dickinson and her team are already preparing for the 2024 Summer Wednesdays program! They are excited to feature new recipes and increase culturally diverse menu options. Casey loves to get creative with menu planning and plans to include a banh-mi sandwich with local pickled vegetables, Cajun meatballs with local beef, and a local chicken shawarma dish! Additionally, CCPS is excited to partner with CFIT Community, a local organization, to help pay for parent and guardian meals!

USDA Releases Updates to the School Nutrition Standards Final Rule

On April 28, 2024, FNS released the Final Rule: Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent With the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The final rule is the next step in continuing the science-based improvement of school meals and other USDA child nutrition programs, as well as advancing USDA’s commitment to nutrition security. Strengthening school meals is one of the best investments we can make in our children’s futures. USDA’s commitment to working with school meal partners to provide nutritious school meals comes from a common goal we all share: to help children lead healthier lives.

National Pollinator Week

Pollinator Week 2024 will take place June 17 through 23. This annual celebration, managed by Pollinator Partnership, raises awareness for pollinators and educates on how the public can protect these essential creatures. Download the 2024 Pollinator Week Toolkit for activity ideas, education lessons, and social media content.

USDA Continues to Make MyPlate a Household Name

Recently, Dr. Caree Cotwright, Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity at FNS, collaborated with the USDA FNS Southeast Regional Office (SERO) Team and the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy on a SERO MyPlate Regional Listening Session, hosted by the Atlanta Community Food Bank in Georgia. Dr. Cotwright will host regional listening sessions in six other regions throughout the summer and fall. These sessions aim to equip stakeholders on how to use MyPlate to support nutrition education and increase health equity. Please email Dr. Cotwright at caree.cotwright@usda.gov if you are interested in participating or would like to meet with her to share your successes, barriers, and ideas for making MyPlate a household name. She would love to hear from Patrick Leahy Farm to School grantees and the broader local food systems community. She will host a MyPlate Listening Session at the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior Annual Conference on Tuesday, July 30, at 8:00am ET.

USDA Summer EBT Outreach Toolkit

UDSA Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program for Children, also known as Summer EBT or SUN Bucks, officially launches this summer! Summer EBT provides grocery-buying benefits to income-eligible families with school-aged children when schools are closed for the summer. Families are income eligible if they receive benefits like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or meet the income requirements for free or reduced-price school meals. Most families will be automatically enrolled, but some families will need to apply for the program. USDA has created an outreach toolkit to help implementing agencies promote the new program and help ensure families understand how to use their benefits. The Toolkit contains various factsheets, branding guides, and customizable outreach resources. For more information on Summer EBT in your State, territory, or ITO click here.  

North Carolina’s Farm to Summer Toolkit

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Summer Nutrition Programs has a Farm to Summer Toolkit that helps break down how summer nutrition sponsors can utilize local foods and implement nutrition education activities in summer meal programs. Although catered to the North Carolina landscape, this toolkit has something for everyone! This toolkit shares the many benefits of farm to summer, how to incorporate local foods into menus, ideas for nutrition education activities, and ways to support and implement gardens at feeding sites.

Garden to Table’s Curriculum and Educational Resources

Through their USDA Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant, Fiscal Year 2022 grantee Growe Foundation DBA Garden to Table created an engaging garden curriculum to support schools in Boulder County, Colorado, but these fantastic resources apply to all farm to school programs involved in gardening! The standards-based curriculum includes lesson plans for grades PreK through 5^th grade and provides instruction resources to support teachers in program implementation. One of the lesson plans focuses on summer planting and designing vegetable gardens! Don’t miss out on these great resources to help support or grow your school or community garden!

Step-by-Step Recipe Standardization Guide for the CACFP

The Institute of Child Nutrition's (ICN) Step-by-Step Recipe Standardization Guide for USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is a comprehensive guide designed to facilitate recipe standardization within the CACFP. This “how-to” manual serves as a complete resource, detailing the initial recipe development stage to the final implementation. If you’re a CACFP operator interested in developing recipes, be sure and check out the Step-by-Step Recipe Standardization Guide on ICN’s website!

NFSN Coffee Chat: Fostering Student Engagement in Farm to School Through Podcast

Join the National Farm to School Network (NFSN) on May 29 at 4:00pm ET on LinkedIn for a virtual coffee chat. During the summer of 2021, the Center for Environmental Farming Systems’ Farm to School program held focus groups for high school students in North Carolina to pilot student-led wellness committees in their schools. Due to challenges caused by the pandemic, six students volunteered to pivot and reimagine this project by creating a student-led podcast designed to increase student engagement and excitement. Join this coffee chat with the three student podcasters and their editor/producer as they share their experiences developing a podcast covering topics like food justice, school food inclusivity, and more!

USDA Rural Cooperative Development Grant 

USDA Rural Development's Rural Cooperative Development Grant (RCDG) program improves rural areas’ economic conditions by helping individuals and businesses start, expand, or improve rural cooperatives and other mutually-owned businesses through Cooperative Development Centers. RCDG grant funds can support Development Centers in providing technical assistance and services related to leadership, operational improvement training, strategic planning, and business plan development. Learn more about application requirements in the RCDG Federal Register notice and RCDG program website. 

Healthy Food Financing Initiative 2024 Planning Grant Program

Through a partnership with USDA Rural Development, America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative is accepting grant awards through the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HHFI) 2024 Planning Grant Program. The HFFI Program supports innovative, fresh food retail and food retail supply chain projects that seek to improve access to healthy food in underserved rural, urban, and Tribal communities. Grants will be awarded to support early-stage planning and predevelopment activities of new or expanded food retail or food supply chain projects that seek to process, distribute, aggregate, market, and sell healthy, fresh, and affordable foods to underserved communities and markets. For information on eligibility requirements and the application process, read the Request for Applications.

USDA’s Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program

USDA Office of Partnership and Public Engagement's Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged and Veterans Farmers and Ranchers program, also known as the 2501 Program will provide grant funding for organizations that help underserved and veteran farmers, ranchers, and foresters to own and operate successful farm businesses. The objective of the 2501 Program is to show USDA’s commitment to ensuring that underserved and veteran farmers, ranchers, and foresters can equitably participate in USDA programs. An informational webinar for grant applicants will be held on June 26 at 2pm ET.

Team Nutrition Training Grant

On May 16, 2024, USDA FNS released a Request for Applications for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Team Nutrition Training Grants for Meal Pattern Modernization and Retention and Mentorship Opportunities. State agencies that administer the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) are eligible to apply. This grant will help State agencies build capacity for future implementation of the Final Rule-Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and address the residual COVID-19 effects on staff retention in school meal programs. Through a competitive process, FNS expects to award approximately $9.6 million in total funding, up to $800,000 per State agency, for use over a three-year grant period. Register for an information webinar being held May 30 at 3:00 pm ET.