The Urban School Food Alliance, a coalition of the nation’s 11 largest urban school districts, and FoodCorps, an AmeriCorps grantee organization that focuses on building healthy school food environments, announced this week a partnership between the two nonprofits. The formal agreement aims to impact the quality of meals in school cafeterias across the nation with the goal of improving student health and academic performance.

While continuing to work independently on day-to-day operations, as partners, both groups will collaborate on initiatives to further increase food quality in school meals and improve student health and academic performance across 11 of the largest school districts in the country.

In this new video, you’ll hear from both kids and adults in FoodCorps partner schools in California, Georgia, and New York about how FoodCorps service members has helped transform their cafeterias and classrooms.

Food is so plentiful for so many in the United States that it’s easy to take for granted, and difficult to get the message across of the importance of reducing waste. As with most lessons worth learning, the earlier the message can be put across the better.

“It’s good for shade, sitting with friends and talking or play games. Or you can sit by yourself and write something personal in your diary,” said eight-year-old Gabby while talking about her experiences in the River Garden at Seaton Elementary School.

Warren County FoodCorps wrapped up its services here with a celebration last Thursday after seven years of teaching students that locally-grown foods are not only delicious, but also fun to grow.

Countless seeds have been planted and produce harvested since Mary Grace Stoneking arrived in Van Buren two years ago. Assigned as the first-ever FoodCorps service member with the Van Buren School District, Stoneking’s arrival signaled a shift in the way VBSD approached nutrition education and ushered in a new way of thinking about food and its origins for Van Buren students.

Students gather around tables early in the morning in the Durant-Tuuri-Mott Elementary auditorium, enjoying yogurt parfaits on one of their last days of school. Not so long ago, many of these students would not have entertained the idea of eating yogurt with fresh fruits and granola.