Awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in collaboration with Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK), the Union City Area School District received the Innovation in School Meals Preparation Award.
Innovation in the School Meals Preparation Award winners incorporated new menu items that are prepared from scratch using a local agricultural product or USDA food in accordance with the USDA recipe standardization process and incorporated student engagement, according to a news release from the USDA, Healthy Meals Incentives and AFHK.
As an award recipient, the district also received national and local recognition and travel stipends to attend a national Healthy Meals Summit.
“We congratulate Union City Area School Districton this important achievement,” said Rob Bisceglie, executive officer and president for AFHK. “The HMI Recognition Awards are an opportunity to showcase innovative school nutrition practices that provide children with access to nutritious school meals.”
Cindy Long, administrator of the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, said one of America’s best opportunities to improve child health is through supporting schools in providing tasty and nutritious meals.
“This Recognition Award highlights the remarkable achievements UCASDhas made in offering healthy meals that students enjoy, and we look forward to them sharing their best practices to help other schools follow in their footsteps,” Long said.
Long added that, each school day, USDA school meal programs reach around 30 million children from all communities and backgrounds across the country.
Healthy school meals are an essential part of the school environment and a proven tool for improving a child’s health, growth, development and educational outcomes, according to the news release.
Also, Krista Byler, food services director for the district, received a congratulatory letter from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The letter was signed by Vonda Ramp, state director, Child Nutrition Program.
Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Awards recognize and celebrate School Food Authorities (SFA) who made operational changes to improve the nutritional quality of their school meals, as well as SFAs who engage students and families in nutrition education and in the planning and preparation of nutritious school meals, the letter stated.
“We believe that your efforts and recognition will inspire other Pennsylvania schools to make menus more nutritious and accessible for students and to engage families and students in innovative approaches to serve delicious, healthy school meals,” Ramp said. “We applaud the important work you do every day to nourish the children in your schools and celebrate this special achievement in going above and beyond for your students.”
