USDA to provide over $1B to help schools with food procurement challengesUSDA to provide over $1B to help schools with food procurement challenges

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is providing up to $1.5 billion to states and school districts to help school nutrition teams deal with supply chain issues.

Schools will receive $1 billion to purchase food for their meal programs and another $300 million will be provided to states to purchase foods to then be distributed to school districts. An additional $200 million will be utilized for cooperative agreements to purchase local foods for schools, with an emphasis on buying locally and from historically excluded producers. 

The USDA has created a state-by-state breakdown on how the funds will be distributed. Funding is being made available through USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation.

A recent School Nutrition Association survey revealed that many school nutrition programs are struggling with procurement challenges, amid other obstacles.