Covington Community School Corporation awarded Healthy Meals Incentives grant – $71,000

Healthy Meals Incentives Grantee Communications Toolkit

Contact: Becky Story
Phone: 765-793-5615
Email: storyb@covington.k12.in.us

Covington Community School Corporation Receives Healthy Meals Incentives Grant to Improve Nutritional Quality of School Meals

Covington, Indiana September 1,2023
Covington Community School Corporation was awarded a Healthy Meals Incentives grant in the amount of $71,000 from Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK) to support its efforts to upgrade outdated equipment and help improve the overall health of meals. The Healthy Meals Incentives grant is part of an allocation of nearly $30 million by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service to 264 schools across 44 states and the District of Columbia.

As part of the Healthy Meals Incentives grant program, AFHK and its partners will provide Covington School Corporation with in-depth individualized technical assistance to support and guide the implementation of key strategies to improve school meal quality, as well as help the district to develop
creative solutions to provide nutritious foods for the children we serve.

“Offering healthier school meals is key to helping our nation’s kids get the nutrients they need today and
for their long-term development,” said Action for Healthy Kids CEO Rob Bisceglie. “Through this historic
investment in school nutrition, we will help school districts across the country overcome challenges and
develop solutions to provide nutritious foods for the children they serve.”

An online map on the Healthy Meals Incentives website features the selected school districts and their
grant amounts. The map will be updated on a rolling basis as school districts formalize their grant
agreements.

“Students in every community deserve access to healthy and nutritious meals,” said USDA Deputy
Secretary Xochitl Torres Small. “Today’s announcement demonstrates the Biden-Harris Administration’s
commitment to creating healthier, brighter futures for our children. With these funds, small and rural
school districts will be able to modernize their operations and provide more nutritious meals, helping
students succeed in the classroom and beyond.”

USDA and Action for Healthy Kids also recently opened applications for the Healthy Meals Incentives
Recognition Awards, which celebrate school districts that have made significant improvements to the
nutritional quality of their school meals. All school districts in the United States, the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico, Guam, and the United States Virgin Islands are invited to apply. Applications will be
reviewed on a rolling basis through June 30, 2025.

School districts that meet Recognition Award criteria will receive benefits such as national and local
recognition; travel stipends to attend a national Healthy Meals Summit; access to diverse best practices,
training activities; and more.

Action for Healthy Kids will manage the grants to school districts, Recognition Awards, and Healthy
Meals Summits with the support of The Chef Ann Foundation and Rocky Mountain Center for Health
Promotion and Education.

USDA’s Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative also includes the School Food System Transformation
Challenge Grants, which aim to support innovation in the school meals market by increasing
collaboration between schools, food producers and suppliers, and other partners. Applications for the
Challenge Grants are expected to open in late 2023 or early 2024.

To learn more about other resources USDA provides to strengthen school meal programs, visit the USDA
Support for School Meals webpage.

FNS works to end hunger and improve food and nutrition security through a suite of 16 nutrition
assistance programs, such as the National School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs, the
Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children and the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program. Together, these programs serve 1 in 4 Americans over the course of a year,
promoting consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, and affordable food essential to optimal health and well-being. FNS also provides science-based nutrition recommendations through the co-
development of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. FNS’s report, “Leveraging the White House Conference to Promote and Elevate Nutrition Security: The Role of the USDA Food and Nutrition
Service,” released in conjunction with the historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and
Health in September 2022, highlights ways the agency will support the Biden-Harris Administration’s
National Strategy. To learn more about FNS, visit www.fns.usda.gov and follow @USDANutrition.

Action for Healthy Kids is dedicated to improving children’s health and well-being by bringing together
and mobilizing educators, families, and other key stakeholders to help children lead healthy lives.
Through its core programming and family-school partnerships, AFHK has impacted more than 20 million
children in 55,000 schools nationwide to address systemic challenges in underserved communities. To
learn more about its growing network of volunteers and champions, visit www.actionforhealthykids.org.