nutrition

The Food and Nutrition Service’s Mid-Atlantic Region recently joined forces with the New Jersey Department of Agriculture to recognize Programs for Parents, a Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) sponsor in Essex County, NJ, with a regional CACFP Achievement Award for their creative and dedicated efforts to promote nutrition security among children. Their program emphasizes meal quality, nutrition education, and the overall wellness of its childcare providers, children and parents/caregivers.

I’m Dr. Wayne M. Detmer, and I work at Lawndale Christian Health Center (LCHC) on Chicago’s west side. Like many neighborhoods around the country, our community members experience significant disparities in health outcomes. We’ve grown in our recognition that excellence in the exam room has its limits, and that to see real change, we need to think outside of exam room walls.

USDA and the Biden Administration have been working hard for months to get more safe infant formula onto shelves across the country. Ending this shortage is a top priority. In the meantime, we’ve heard many uplifting stories of neighbors helping neighbors and strangers reaching out to lend a helping hand. We’ve also seen WIC staff across the country go the extra mile to help the families they serve.

When enrolling moms into the USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children, better known as WIC, less than 30% of state agencies in Connecticut were asking for the father’s name. We don't encourage dads to step up and then we wonder why they don't show up.

It’s an honor to serve as USDA’s first director of nutrition security and health equity at the Food and Nutrition Service. In this role I have the privilege of working to ensure all Americans have consistent access to safe, healthy, and affordable foods essential to optimal health and well-being.

Do you enjoy exploring food from countries around the world? Celebrating cultural traditions through food is a great way to connect with people from various communities and learn about their heritage. It is also a way to appreciate your own cultural roots! Discover simple ways to enjoy three cultural foods and see what vitamins and minerals they contain using FoodData Central from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

There are few things that worry a parent more than their children’s health and safety. The ongoing infant formula shortage due to supply chain issues, which worsened due to a major formula recall in February, has left many caregivers feeling concerned and anxious about their options for safely feeding their infants.

It’s the age-old question – how to get children to eat more fruit? We all know the benefits of a diet that’s rich in fruit. At least adults do. Convincing children to add more fruit to their diet is another challenge. The food nutrition experts at the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands enticed their school children to eat more fruit by serving fruit smoothies.

Every five years, USDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services partner to provide the latest, science-based nutrition guidance to empower Americans to make dietary choices that will improve their health and lifestyles. These guidelines are a cornerstone of federal nutrition policy, which we are leveraging to promote and elevate nutrition security. Poor nutrition is a leading cause of illness in the U.S. and by focusing on the quality of what we eat, we can help reduce diet-related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease that impact historically underserved and marginalized communities.

Making varsity, attending prom, getting into college or finding a job upon graduation … all things that many high school students spend time thinking about. We’d wager that very few of them also spend time thinking about where their food comes from, how nutritious it is, or how it got to their plate. Unless, that is, they happen to be a student at William Penn High School in New Castle, Delaware.