(Washington, D.C.,\u00a0August 24, 2026) – Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced sweeping new efforts to strengthen school meals by connecting more American farmers with local schools, investing in school kitchen infrastructure, and giving states and school districts new tools to serve healthier, more nutrient-dense meals to America\u2019s children.<\/p>\n
Secretary Kennedy joined Secretary Rollins at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), alongside farmers, students, school nutrition leaders, athletes, chefs, and parents, to announce the next phase of the Trump Administration\u2019s work to Make America Healthy Again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we want to Make America Healthy Again, we have to start with our children, and that means improving what we put on their lunch trays every single day,\u201d said Secretary Brooke L. Rollins. \u201cHarvest to Hallways is about bringing more American agriculture into the school cafeteria. We are connecting schools with the farmers and ranchers in their own communities, investing in the kitchens and equipment school nutrition professionals need to prepare real food, and cutting through barriers that have made it too difficult to serve healthy, American-grown food. When we strengthen the connection between the farm and the lunchroom, everybody wins: our children eat better, our farmers gain new markets, and our communities grow stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery school meal should make a child healthier,\u201d said Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u00a0\u201cUnder President Trump\u2019s leadership, we are putting the updated Dietary Guidelines into action by bringing real, nutrient-dense food back to school cafeterias and giving schools the tools to serve it affordably. Together with Secretary Rollins, we are building a school food system that supports American farmers and raises healthier American children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harvest to Hallways includes up to $70 million in investments in school cafeteria infrastructure, an effort to expand schools\u2019 use of local food procurement options, and up to $25 million in additional Farm to School Grants for Fiscal Year 2026.<\/p>\n
Harvest to Hallways<\/p>\n
The initiative includes several actions to improve school meals and strengthen the connection between American agriculture and America\u2019s children:<\/p>\n
Expanding Local Procurement:\u00a0USDA will launch a major education and outreach campaign around the\u00a0\u201cLocal Option\u201d School Procurement Program, an existing procurement pathway that can allow schools to be reimbursed for purchases of locally produced foods. The Local Option has already been used in Union County, Kentucky, where school districts purchased locally produced beef. USDA will provide dedicated outreach and webinars to help more schools take advantage of the option.Investing in School Kitchens:\u00a0USDA will make a new\u00a0$50 million investment in school cafeteria infrastructure\u00a0to help qualifying schools purchase equipment such as cold storage and stoves, improve food safety, and establish, maintain, or expand School Breakfast Programs. The investment builds on recently announced National School Lunch Program Equipment Assistance Grants totaling $20 million. Secretaries Rollins and Kennedy will also work to encourage public-private partnerships to complement USDA\u2019s investment.Bringing More Local Food to Schools:\u00a0USDA is announcing\u00a0up to $25 million in new, additional Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grants for FY 2026. These investments help schools incorporate locally produced foods into child nutrition programs while creating new market opportunities for American farmers and ranchers. Previous projects include the Pennsylvania Beef Council\u2019s work with 175 local schools to bring locally raised beef to nearly 300,000 students.Accelerating Healthier Meals:\u00a0USDA and HHS will encourage greater state adoption of the\u00a0Pledge for Healthier School Meals, which encourages updated nutrition practices aligned with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025\u20132030 that can be implemented immediately.Investing in School Meal Nutrition Research: HHS will invest $30 million in research to identify practical, cost-effective ways to improve the nutritional quality of school meals and help schools put healthier meals on students\u2019 trays.<\/p>\n
Together, these actions advance the Make America Healthy Again agenda by improving the food served to America\u2019s children, strengthening school kitchens, and creating stronger connections between American farmers and the communities they feed. Learn more about the new Harvest to Hallways initiative at\u00a0www.usda.gov\/harvest-to-hallways<\/a>.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Washington, D.C.,\u00a0August 24, 2026) – Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins and Health and Human Services…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[97,269],"class_list":["post-824855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}