{"id":382374,"date":"2026-08-27T07:12:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/382374\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T07:12:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:12:31","slug":"federal-health-officials-launch-school-nutrition-program-in-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/382374\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal health officials launch school nutrition program in Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The program will start with $32.5 million in total funds, according to the Health and Human Services secretary.<\/p>\n<p>TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is investing millions of dollars into healthier school lunches.<\/p>\n<p>Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced the Developing Evidence for Programs to Ensure Nutrition for Development (DEPEND) initiative Wednesday morning during a visit to Tampa Bay Boulevard Elementary School.<\/p>\n<p>                                            &#13;<br \/>\n                                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wtsp.com\/assets\/shared-images\/icons\/arrow-circle-down.svg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                                            &#13;<br \/>\n                                                This story continues below.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Federal health officials say DEPEND will make funding available for schools to test new ways to serve more nutritious food to children.<\/p>\n<p>The program will start with $32.5 million in total funds. Individual schools or districts may be awarded anywhere from $75,000 to $2.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMillions of American children depend on school meals every day, and we will not spend taxpayer dollars on food that undermines their health,\u201d Secretary Kennedy said in a statement. \u201cDEPEND will give schools the tools to replace highly processed foods with real, nutrient-dense food \u2014 and use rigorous science to prove what works.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Health officials say ideas that are proven to work in one school may be implemented in other schools.<\/p>\n<p>The first round of funds is expected to be awarded in October. Schools and districts can submit their proposals now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The program will start with $32.5 million in total funds, according to the Health and Human Services secretary.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-382374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}