(BPT) - [Courtesy of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)]

October marks National Farm to School Month and National School Lunch Week, making it a great time to highlight the importance of healthy school meals and USDA's commitment to connecting local farmers and producers with schools nationwide. School nutrition professionals and teachers, along with farmers and other partners, help to bring healthy and tasty food to about 30 million children each school day. That's why the USDA has provided billions in financial support in recent years to schools across the country through a variety of initiatives.

Most recently, USDA announced its investment of $500 million for schools to purchase local, unprocessed foods as the latest in a series of actions to support school meals through nutritious, domestic foods.

'A healthier future for our country starts with our children and American farmers and producers play a critical role in ensuring kids have healthy, tasty food with homegrown flavor to nourish them throughout the school day,' said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. 'We know the school meals supply chain is strongest when schools have relationships with local suppliers, which is why USDA will continue to support local foods in schools for a brighter future for our children.'

Investments in Local, Domestic Foods

Since 2021, USDA has provided a boost of nearly $4.8 billion for school meal programs to purchase domestic, unprocessed foods. Of that, nearly $700 million - including that recently announced $500 million investment - is through the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program. This program is specifically for procuring local and regionally sourced foods with an emphasis on purchases from historically underserved producers.

In addition to providing schools greater access to nutritious, local foods for their meal programs, this funding creates new market opportunities for producers as well as jobs and opportunities in local communities. The result is a stronger, fairer, more resilient local food chain for schools.

Farm to School

Today, more than 67,000 schools participate in farm to school. Farm-to-school activities such as serving local foods in school, growing a school garden, tasting new foods and visiting local farms provide experiential learning for children, support American farmers and producers, boost nutrition in school meals and more. The new USDA Farm to School Census reports that 74% of schools served local foods during school year 2022-2023.

Other key findings include:

• School districts that purchased local spent about $1.8 billion on local foods, roughly 16% of their total food spending.
• Participation in farm-to-school activities has grown by 14% since the 2019 Farm to School Census.
• School districts with a high percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price meals are as likely to participate in farm to school as lower-need school districts.

'When we give kids the opportunity to learn about their food, where it comes from and support them in establishing good eating habits, we're setting them up to reach their full potential in the classroom and beyond,' said USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Cindy Long.

Learn more about the Farm to School Census and USDA's record-breaking $14.3 million in farm-to-school grants awarded in 2024 by visiting the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program website.

Strengthening School Meals

Nutritious school meals are a top priority for USDA and the Biden-Harris Administration, which have provided about $13.2 billion in extra financial support for schools since 2021 to ensure they have the resources they need to operate successful meal programs. School meals are a vital source of nutrition for about 30 million children nationwide, giving them the fuel they need to grow, learn and thrive.

Major actions USDA has taken this year to strengthen school meals include:

• Updating school nutrition standards to include gradual reductions in added sugars and sodium.
• Making it easier for school meal programs to buy local, unprocessed foods through their procurement processes.
• Providing millions in grants to spark innovation in the school meals marketplace, improve training for school nutrition professionals, and provide new kitchen equipment to schools.
• Planning the largest ever federal-led gathering of the school meals community.

USDA is also committed to increasing access to school meals to ensure all children are set up for success in the classroom and beyond. Advancing a pathway to free healthy school meals for all is a priority of the Biden-Harris Administration's White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. Eight states have already taken permanent actions to provide healthy school meals at no cost to all students; in other states, many schools in high-need areas provide free meals to all students through the USDA's Community Eligibility Provision.

To learn more about farm to school and the resources available to schools, families and local farmers and producers, visit www.fns.usda.gov/schoolmeals.