USDA to Support Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Campaign

As announced by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in a blog post yesterday, here is a snapshot of what the United States Department of Agriculture will be working on to help First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative:

The USDA’s Food and Nutrition programs will be working to serve healthier food in public schools. To do this, they’ll be working with Congress to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act and hopefully invest an additional $10 billion over ten years to improve the quality of the National School Lunch and Breakfast program, increase the number of kids participating, and ensure that schools have the resources they need to make program changes.

If the USDA is effective, this means school-age children across the nation will have better access to fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products. Nutritious foods will be served in all school cafeterias and an additional one million students will be served through school lunch programs in the next five years.

The USDA is also working with the First Lady to promote and double the number of schools participating in the Healthier US School Challenge, which establishes rigorous standards for schools’ food quality, participation in meal programs, physical activity, and nutrition education–the key components that make for healthy and active kids.

And the USDA is embracing the latest technology and external stakeholders to help reach their goals. Their Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services is preparing to launch the Innovations for Healthy Kids Challenge–a call to American entrepreneurs, software developers, and students to use a recently released USDA nutrition data set to create innovative, fun, and engaging web-based learning applications that motivate kids, especially “tweens” (aged 9-12) and their parents, to eat more healthfully and be more physically active.

Related posts:

1. Michelle Obama Launches “Let’s Move” Nationwide Campaign
2. USDA Secretary Vilsack Outlines Top Priorities for Childhood Nutrition Act Reauthorization
3. Letter to Obama: Conservation is Important in Ag Policy

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