AASA, The School Superintendents Association’s Post

Did you catch the latest report from the Food Research & Action Center on #SchoolMeals? FRAC’s 2024 report on the reach of school lunch and breakfast shares key data on how many kids participated in school meals programs in the 2022-2023 school year, including how over a million fewer students benefited from school meals last year when compared to SY 2021-2022. While more and more states are opting into universal school meals programs, let’s continue to push for a federal program to keep every kid fed and healthy at school!

This is our third webinar in our school absenteeism series. Don't miss out on learnings on how to increase attendance at your school! #schoolabsenteeism #schoolmeals #foodsecurity #chronicabsenteeism #teachers #educators #schooladministrator

🍲 𝗙𝗢𝗢𝗗 = 𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗟 👨🎓 Our food & wellness programs form the very backbone of support that disadvantaged students need in order to attend school. For many families living with food insecurity, this program makes the difference between sending their children to class, or out to work to help put food on the table. In the next few posts, we’ll examine the impact of this crucial program, from daily school meals to food banks that have been developed with a laser focus on families living with the direst food insecurity. In total across all our food programs last year ... 🍚 66 tons of rice 🍗 13 tons of meat 🥕 17 tons of vegetable ... were consumed. That’s a whole lot of nutrition going where it’s needed most! Watch the video to see where our food program first began: daily meals, available to the +700 students at our rural school locations. Because with full tummies, kids can stay in class and focus on the lesson. Because Food = School … and #schoolistheanswer 💛

📊| Food Research & Action Center Did you miss this? The Food Research & Action Center published the new report called "The State of Healthy School Meals for All: California, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada and Vermont Lead the Way". What were the key findings? - School lunch participation in #California, #Maine, #Massachusetts, #Nevada, and #Vermont — the five states that implemented Healthy School Meals for All policies during the 2022–2023 school year — increased compared to pre-pandemic participation levels. - Student breakfast participation increased in four of the five states but not as dramatically as lunch participation, showing there is still room for growth in the School Breakfast Program. - The response to Healthy School Meals for All policies has been positive, with state child nutrition agencies noting many benefits to providing school meals at no cost to all families and public opinion polling showing broad support. To learn more, read the full report that was shared by Dr. Amberley Ruetz, PhD!

The latest episode of "Enlighten U" dives into food insecurity, how it affects college students, and campus resources available for students. #TruEMU To learn more, visit: https://true.mu/3WGjfCE

😀 Good to be with lots of school food colleagues at the LACA - The School Food People #LACAmainevent national conference. And thank you to the organisers for letting us talk about the #economics of school food and the School Food Matters commissioned #Costofaschoolmeal 🥗 Lots to celebrate in school food - but also lots for tomorrow's administration to grapple with: 🍽 #EquitableAccess - how to ensure all children can afford good nutritious school meals (Ambition = Universal Free School Meals) 📏 #QualityAssurance - how to put in place a fair but transparent monitoring and reporting mechanism to support everyone to make sure children are eating the great school food they need 💲 #Fairerfunding - it's all about the economics of school food - we need enough money in the system to deliver fair wages, good food and promote #great Lot's to do, lots to talk about. The #SchoolFoodReview - consisting of over 40 national organisations spanning the school food system, will be working hard with the new administration to deliver the #manifesto and ensure a bright future for children's nutritional health... 😍😍😍

Healthy #SchoolsMeals4All is gaining momentum across the country. So far, eight states have passed Healthy School Meals for All policies, while bills are pending in many other states.  Next Tuesday, September 10, join a FRAC webinar for an overview of the Healthy School Meals for All movement, including the research supporting the policy, lessons learned from implementing states, and bills introduced in Congress to expand school meals. https://lnkd.in/ebSRvAr9

Every kid and teen deserves access to healthy food, but for those that count on school meals, summer can often be the hungriest time of year. But that's changing now. Thanks to new investments in how our country reaches kids with the nutrition they need; more students will have access to meals they need during the summer months. This summer, for the first time ever, many states across the nation will launch Summer EBT, a program that complements existing summer meal programs by helping families stretch their grocery budgets - regardless of where they live. It's exciting to see the number of states implementing Summer EBT this year. #NoKidHungry #socialimpact #zerohunger #zerohungerzerowaste

At an Abt Global webinar on Summer EBT implementation, we discussed 3 main issues Summer EBT coordinators might face. Read about it in our blog! #foodsecurity #foodinsecurity

AFS Forum 2024 with School Feeding program: To improve food system through SFP, you need to change 3 things: mindset, meals & market