The Skillet

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.

"Thanks to a particularly fierce Boston winter, our school year was dotted with snow days. Each time a cancellation was announced, I noticed students’ distress, rather than glee. 'Their families rely on school meals,' a teacher told me. 'They might not know if they get to eat tomorrow.'" Ellie Doyle was a runner-up in the 2018 FoodCorps Victory Growers Award “for a compelling account of hunger and food insecurity,” winning a $1,000 prize for her service site.

"No matter how healthy the food on their lunch plate is, for students to feel nourished, they must be in a space where they feel as though they are welcome and understood." Zoe Flavin was a runner-up in the 2018 FoodCorps Victory Growers Award “for a compelling account of hunger and food insecurity,” winning a $1,000 prize for her service site.

Each year we invite new members to join our Alumni Council to bring fresh perspectives and passions to the group. They are here to support all alumni in launching initiatives they’d like to start, in lifting their voices to FoodCorps’ National team, and in advancing their career goals post-FoodCorps. Meet the Council members below and &hellip; <a href="https://foodcorps.org/meet-this-years-alumni-council/">Continued</a>

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.