illinois

Yesterday, an ABC Good Morning America (GMA) crew visited the Academy for Global Citizenship in Chicago. Why was GMA at a small neighborhood school on the Second City’s southwest side on a frosty day in January? To help underscore the importance of Agriculture Secretary Vilsack’s recent announcement of proposed changes to school meal standards.

School nutrition folks in Chicago have been busy. Last May, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and locally-based Healthy Schools Campaign launched the city’s Go for the Gold campaign. The effort seeks to have 100 city schools qualify for USDA’s HealthierUS Challenge gold award. As part of that announcement, CPS revised its food menus and made other changes, as well.

While some might think that Chicagoans are only passionate about sports and pizza, they’re mistaken. In fact, lately it seems that residents of the Second City are as jazzed about the food their children eat at school as they are about their Bulls and Bears.

When Chicago heard about First Lady Michelle Obama’s effort to match chefs with schools, the city popped! Inspired by a unique partnership between locally-based Healthy Schools Campaign and Chicago Public Schools, the city saw an impressive number of Second City chefs sign up to participate in the effort.

Last week I attended a rollicking event on Chicago’s West Side.  Healthy Schools Campaign’s Cooking Up Change event—a benefit and competition between students to create healthy and tasty school meals—was attended by over 600 enthusiastic high schoolers, community leaders, local government leaders and Chicagoans with an interest in improving school meals.

The Canal Corridor Association, headquartered in LaSalle, Ill., has recaptured the past to build for the future, and a USDA Rural Development Business & Industry loan guarantee is helping them do it.

At USDA Food and Nutrition Service, partnerships are critical to our success in reducing hunger in America. From school lunch to food banks, FNS programs operate more effectively with strong partnerships.

USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service Midwest Regional Office collected 4100 pounds of food to support the Feds, Farmers and Friends Feed Families Initiative. We decided to make it fun event and include some of our partners and rename the Food Drive the Yellow Brick Road Food Drive, a spinoff of the Wizard of Oz.  We successfully recruited help and support from the Girl Scouts, CITGO Petroleum and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   With the support of our partners and our managers, the MWRO team was victorious in defeating that “Wicked Witch” of hunger.

An organic breakfast featuring vanilla spiced whole oats, scrambled vegetable tofu, organic milk and local pears, followed by morning yoga in the classroom, a student-led garden tour and a visit to the chicken coop… what a wonderful way to spend a Tuesday morning!  That day, I had the pleasure of attending a special ceremony with Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan at the Academy of Global Citizenship (AGC) in Chicago where she presented them with USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge (HUSSC) Gold of Distinction Award, the HUSSC’s highest honor.  It was easy to see why they are the first school in Chicago and the entire Midwest to receive such an honor.

This week, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan toured the Main Street of Momence, Il, to view the positive growth made possible by USDA’s investments in rural revitalization. The community was decorated with corn stalks and fall mums to welcome Agriculture Deputy Secretary Merrigan to this town of 3,200 people, located 50 miles south of Chicago.  Merrigan and Momence residents enthusiastically toured several businesses that received financing thanks to a USDA Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG), administered by the USDA Rural Development agency.  Last year USDA provided a $99,000 grant to “Main Street Momence,” a preservation and volunteer based economic development program, to help them establish a revolving, low-interest loan fund.  The program is designed to help small businesses locate or remain in Momence’s historic downtown area. Thirteen months later, four businesses have taken advantage of the increased access to credit by taking out loans. As a result, these businesses have created 27 new full time jobs and saved another 21 in this past year alone.