White House to provide $50M in grant funding for school kitchen equipment

The Biden-Harris Administration announced it will provide $50 million in grant funding to school nutrition programs to help them purchase new foodservice equipment.

White House officials say that the equipment will help schools serve healthier, locally sourced meals, conduct scratch cooking, implement or expand school breakfast, store fresh food and improve food safety.

This is the latest in a string of school nutrition funding efforts by the White House and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Last month, the White House announced the first phase of a $100 million healthy school meals initiative that will set up a grant program for smaller and/or rural school districts. Over the summer, the USDA said it would provide $471.5 million in additional funding to help schools purchase American-grown food for school meals.

Many school nutrition operators are still struggling with rising costs. Nearly all (96%) of the respondents to a recent K-12 survey by FSD said that increasing costs will be a challenge this school year.