food

We all come together for festivals, fun and food as the growing season comes to an end.  This is the opening of the season of celebrating holidays bringing family and friends together. Our challenge is know how enjoy and deal with an abundance of food throughout out celebrations.

USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon joined elementary school students in Bellville, Texas to award their schools “Gold” in USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge for their outstanding achievements in improving their school nutrition environments.  Their schools, West End Elementary and O’Bryant Primary School along with O’Bryant Intermediate School, which earned gold last year, are Bellville’s three elementary schools and now all HealthierUS Schools.

This week, we celebrate National School Lunch Week to highlight a program paramount to improving the health and well being our Nation’s children. And it’s an effort receiving this important recognition for good reason…

Secretary Vilsack stopped in Knoxville, Iowa, at a Healthier US School Challenge Gold Award school on Monday of National School Lunch Week for a roundtable discussion with school administrators, local, state and federal nutrition program staff, teachers, parents and students representing three schools in the district about improving nutrition in schools and the upcoming Child Nutrition Reauthorization efforts.

Last week USDA brought you a series of events and announcements to roll out the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative (KYF2). Today, we’re excited to bring it all together with a new Website for consumers and producers.

Do you want to make healthier food choices, but aren’t sure where to start?

USDA has three new on-line tools and sites that can get you going:

On an early fall day when the rain refused to pass farmers and producers from the DC-metropolitan region gathered for the opening of the FRESHFARM Market by the White House on Vermont Ave. Federal employees, area workers and out-of-town visitors gathered for the festivities despite the weather and were excited for the new program.

Remember when your favorite dish unexpectedly appeared on the menu at your school cafeteria? It was the same feeling of excitement today at the USDA Cafeteria. White House Chef Sam Kass mixed up Honey Crisp Apple Salad (with or without chicken) for USDA employees and visitors as Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan continues the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food roll-out week.

Today in the People's Garden, USDA volunteers hosted another Healthy Garden Workshop -- and visitors were once again able to sample a dish created entirely from garden-grown foods in the Chef's Garden. The events will continue all summer here in Washington, but you can also check out some video from this afternoon:

A volunteer from the Natural Resources Conservation Service leads the Healthy Garden Workshop, on attracting wildlife to the garden -- in this segment of the presentation, he's outlining how to attract hummingbirds.

The Obama administration has called on Americans from all backgrounds and walks of life to work to improve their communities as part of the United We Serve project. Here at USDA, many of our more than 100,000 employees are doing their part. They are driven to serve, and proud to identify ways to use their skills to support their own communities.

Take a look at the great work two USDA employees are doing:

People’s Garden—Tom (Goodhue, MN)