Recent announcements by top USDA officials focused on improving school nutrition programs year-long as well as in specific times such as the summer. Rod Bain reports.

PARTICIPANTS: Rod Bain. Secretary Tom Vilsack. Deputy Secretary Xochilt Torres Small.

Transcript

A series of recent announcements by the Agriculture Department focused on improving school nutrition and increasing healthy meals.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at a speaking engagement in the nation's capital provided two award announcements under the School Food System Transformation Challenge, part of USDA's Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative.

One is for full plates, full potential.

The main base non-profit focused on combating food insecurity was awarded.

Almost $7.5 million.

Today we turned our sub-granting out to seven organizations.

Organizations participating with schools.

To be able to purchase more locally based foods.

A second grant was awarded to.

The Illinois Public Health Institute which has a partnership with six organizations in the Lake Michigan school area that involves schools in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.

To build collaborations in presenting healthy meal programs and products.

The School Food System Transformation Challenge provides a means to promote school meal innovation through incentivization and collaboration between schools, the food industry and stakeholders.

To date 264 HMI grants have been awarded to small and/or rural school districts.

Meanwhile a new permanent summer school nutrition program is providing grant monies.

Explaining SUNBUCKS is Deputy Agriculture Secretary Sochil Torres-Small.

SUNBUCKS provides financial assistance to families. $120 per student over the summer to be able to help make sure the kids get the nutritious food they need to keep growing and learning. $100 million in grants to states, territories and tribal nations were awarded under the SUNBUCKS program.

The Deputy Secretary explains the impetus behind creating this program.

During the school year about 30 million kids nationwide rely on school meals for healthy food.

But in the summer only about one out of six of those kids who have free and reduced price school meals are able to receive other support through a summer meal program.

For this first year of SUNBUCKS, 37 states plus DC as well as all of the territories have opted to participate in SUNBUCKS in places ranging from Louisiana to Arizona, from Nebraska to Nevada.

And it's going to cover about 70 percent of the total population of children who are eligible for SUNBUCKS.

I'm Rod Bain reporting for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C.