In 2010, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act made the first meaningful improvements to the nutrition of foods and beverages served in cafeterias and sold in school vending machines in 30 years. Today, almost all schools nationwide are meeting the standards leading to a healthier school food environment for over 50 million children.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act has undoubtedly improved the quality of school breakfasts, lunches and snacks and along with it, the health and wellbeing of our children. With support offered by updates in the Act, the national childhood obesity trend is slowly reversing, and our children have more energy to learn, greater opportunity to thrive, and better overall health.
USDA continues to work with schools, listen carefully, and provide time, flexibility, guidance, and resources to help them serve healthier meals that are supported by parents, teachers, doctors, and kids themselves.
At the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, we are excited about using local foods and flavors to create healthy and delicious plates. Through our MyPlate, MyState initiative, we are working to connect American families with the foods grown in their communities – raising awareness that all healthy foods and flavors have a place on [...]
USDA’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services just released 50 new, mouth-watering recipes for schools chefs on our What’s Cooking? USDA Mixing Bowl website. Some are existing USDA recipes that we’ve updated, while others are brand new recipes that students will love. These tasty, kid-approved recipes are tailored for large quantity food service operations in 25, [...]
March is National Nutrition Month. Throughout the month, USDA will be highlighting results of our efforts to improve access to safe, healthy food for all Americans and supporting the health of our next generation. Encouraging all Americans to make healthy nutrition and lifestyle choices is a top priority for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). [...]
![To the extent that we can help parents, to the extent that we can help grandparents, to the extent that we can help foster parents [
] who are trying to do the right thing by starting their child on the proper nutrition path, thats what this law is about. Thats why pediatricians support it, and thats why charitable organizations are behind it. And thats why we at USDA will continue to press forward on the important changes that were made with the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act and continue to urge Congress to do the right thing for our kids. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, September 8, 2015. #HealthierNextGen (USDA logo, fruit illustration in the background)](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20170119125422im_/https://www.usda.gov/img/content/secretary-quote-blog.jpg)
