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Summer 2026
USDA Foods in Schools supports USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins' commitment to strengthening strategies that encourage healthy choices, healthy outcomes, and healthy families. USDA Foods support American farmers and provide safe, high quality, 100% American grown, real food, to school districts across the nation.
Food and Nutrition Administration
The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is now the Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA) – new name, same vital mission! This name change is part of a phased reorganization to modernize, streamline, and strengthen our agency. This will equip FNA to best meet the needs of our participants and partners while delivering our programs with integrity. You can learn more about the reorganization by visiting the FNA website.
Culinary Creativity: USDA Foods Black Bean Burger Patties Beyond the Bun
When USDA Foods black bean burger patties were introduced for the 2025–2026 school year, the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) was excited to highlight their versatility and help school districts explore new ways to use this new protein option.
To support this effort, OSPI contracted with Chef Mataio Gillis, to develop student-friendly recipes featuring black bean patties. He created black bean hash and black bean tostada recipes that showcase menu options beyond the traditional burger format. Flavor-forward sauces, including chipotle ranch and super sauce, complement the patties’ mild southwest seasoning and work well both on and off the bun.
Chef Mataio demonstrated the recipes during culinary demonstrations at Washington’s 2026 USDA Foods Show. Attendees sampled the dishes and discovered new ways to incorporate black bean patties into their menus. Participants shared that they “absolutely love learning and hearing different ways to cook and promote [USDA Foods] choices,” and noted that “finding products that you can use in many ways is a great way to stretch your dollars.”
Shortly after attending Washington’s USDA Foods Show, a participant shared on Facebook: “Hey all! Don’t sleep on the black bean burgers. They are quite delicious, and great to use as a topping.” Her middle and high school students enjoyed the patties as a crumbled topping with cheese on locally-grown baked potatoes, offering another creative use for the burgers beyond a bun.
For more information on black bean burgers and other USDA Foods your school can try, check out the USDA Foods Available List for Schools.
 Supporting School Nutrition Professionals for a Safe Start to the School Year
As schools welcome students back, it is the perfect time to highlight essential food safety practices to support a safe start to meal service. Here are a few key steps you can take to help ensure safe and consistent meal service throughout the school year.
- Review food safety steps such as proper handwashing, preventing cross contamination, maintaining safe temperatures, and following established SOPs.
- Integrate quick learning opportunities—such as the Institute of Child Nutrition’s (ICN) iBites podcast episodes—into pre‑service huddles or short professional‑development moments.
- Use the ICN allergen training materials and fact sheets to strengthen allergen‑management practices and prepare for fall accommodation requests.
- Encourage regular team communication by checking in during shifts and reinforcing consistent, safe food handling across sites.
The ICN offers practical tools and training resources that help school nutrition teams maintain strong, consistent food safety habits each day. Allergen training materials and food allergy fact sheets provide information about preventing cross‑contact, reading labels, understanding the Big 9 allergens, and supporting meal accommodations. The allergen training meets the allergy‑training requirement outlined in the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025, and the fact sheets offer quick, practical references for team huddles or pre‑service meetings. The ICN remains a free national resource school nutrition professionals can use to meet training expectations in the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025. For more information about allergy training, check out the resources below:
NEW Resource: Child Nutrition Programs Food Industry Toolkit!
This centralized webpage organizes Team Nutrition resources for food industry partners who provide food products to organizations operating school meal programs, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the Summer Food Service Program. Food industry partners can navigate resources by topic, including child nutrition labels, Product Formulations Statements, crediting, and more. This toolkit brings all essential resources together in one place, making it easier and faster for new and existing industry partners to access information supporting USDA’s child nutrition programs.
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