Colorado is rolling out nearly $24 million in grants to support the Healthy School Meals for All program passed by voters in 2022.

School districts are also creating Student Parent Advisory Committees to ensure the grants make school meals more nutritious, culturally relevant and appealing to kids.

Amalia Villalta’s two daughters attend middle and high school in Jefferson County. She said she signed up for committee work because today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders.

"I invite all parents in every single county in Colorado to get involved because every decision we make today will impact the health and the future of our children," Villalta urged.

Image

The grants mark a major milestone in the continued rollout of the popular program ensuring every Colorado student has access to free, nutritious school meals. The money will help schools across the state upgrade cafeteria equipment, purchase food from local farms and ranches and increase pay for front line school nutrition staff. Interested parents should contact their school’s head cook or visit Guidebook.NourishColorado.org.

Jessica Wright, senior director of healthy food in institutions for the advocacy group Nourish Colorado, said her team’s training and technical assistance can help cafeterias transition from unpacking highly processed foods to meals made from scratch with local ingredients. Despite this year’s drought and a late freeze destroying many crops, she said schools are learning how to adapt their menus while still being a reliable customer for food producers.

"Farmers can be able to see school meal programs as one market channel that they can rely on and receive fair value for the food that they are spending their livelihoods growing, raising and producing for us," Wright explained.

Villalta stressed when students have access to nutritious meals they will actually eat, they are better prepared to succeed in the classroom. She noted the parents she works with have already introduced three new dishes at Jeffco Schools, one from Venezuela and two from Mexico, which got good reviews from students of all backgrounds.

"We discovered that when you present those dishes, and they include local produce and they are presented in a very natural way, they received 100% acceptance among the students," Villalta reported.