USDA and partners announce second round of School Food System Transformation Challenge Sub-Grants recipients

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and two of its partners have announced the latest round of recipients for its School Food System Transformation Challenge Sub-grants.

The USDA partnered with Boise State University, Chef Ann Foundation, Full Plates Full Potential and the Illinois Public Health Institute last year to oversee the program, which aims to support projects that are intended to strengthen the supply chain for school foodservice programs.

Each of the partner organizations is responsible for overseeing and distributing a select number of grants. As part of its School Food System Innovation Grant, Full Plates Full Potential awarded grants to seven schools and organizations throughout Maine. Over the next four years, Full Plates Full Potential will work with grant recipients on their own pilot projects aimed at strengthening Maine’s food supply and breaking down barriers to getting local, fresh ingredients into school meals.

For its Spark and Innovation Collaborative Awards, The Illinois Public Health Institute awarded grants to 16 organizations throughout the Great Lakes region. Similar to Full Plates Full Potential, The Illinois Public Health Institute will work with each grant recipient on their projects, which also aim to strengthen the school nutrition supply chain.

“USDA is committed to strengthening the nutritional quality of school meals and it starts with strengthening the K-12 school food marketplace, which serves as an important source of nutrition for many children,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement. “These grants will allow schools to purchase a wider variety of healthy, appealing products from local and regional producers, while building a more resilient and equitable food system.”

Earlier this summer, the USDA, Chef Ann Foundation and Boise State University announced the first round of recipients for their grant programs.

The sub-grants are part of the second-phase of the USDA’s $100 million Healthy School Meals Incentive, which it announced in 2022. The incentive aims to help schools strengthen their local procurement efforts and increase the number of scratch-made meals on school menus.

The first phase of the initiative, which has been underway for the past year, focuses on small and rural school meal programs and includes a grant program, four in-person healthy school meals summits and an awards program to recognize school foodservice programs excelling in meal quality and support schools in bringing best practices to their cafeterias.

The USDA partnered with Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK) to help oversee this first phase. Recipients of AFHK’s grant program have used their funding to hire extra staff, purchase kitchen equipment and more.