Urban School Food Alliance

USFA CFO Jeremy West joined members Manish Singh (LA) & Aaron Smith (Seattle) at the inaugural Food is Life Food is Health summit. “Schools can’t do it alone. We must arm students & families with culinary-medicine strategies.” #CIAFLFH

Dr. Katie Wilson on the panel today at Food Health Live! “In a room full of people who care about food as medicine, our panel shared how healthy school meals are a critical beginning to a person’s health journey. Glad school meals were part of the conversation!”

Dr. Wilson is hitting the road this week representing school nutrition in Nashville, TN speaking at Food Health Live. 👩‍🏫 Dr. Wilson will be a panelist discussing the topic: School Food: Myths, Misunderstandings, Models, & Opportunities. We look forward to Thursday!

USFA Leadership is at #ACDA2026 this week! Dr. Katie Wilson, SNS, Executive Director, delivered a powerful session “Links in the Chain: It Takes the Whole Team” and received the ACDA Legacy Award for over a decade of dedication to nourishing the nation.

Year 4 of Cooking for Healthy Kids is a wrap! We launched our first-ever Student Culinary Fellowship, bringing two HS students to train with pros at the Culinary Institute of America. Stay tuned for a full video on their journey! Watch the recap → bit.ly/41Br6CP

“Big news! 🚀 The Urban School Food Alliance launched our first-ever Student Culinary Fellowship! Two students joined our professional training program & showed us that investing in the next generation is the future of school nutrition. Full story → bit.ly/41Uivev

🌟 Member District Highlight: Aldine ISD! 🌟 Since joining The Alliance in 2025, Aldine Cafe has quickly become a vital part of our community. With over 56,000 students enrolled, they are making waves in the school nutrition landscape. #AldineISD #schoolfood #schoollunch #Texas

📸 We're still fired up about our 2026 Cooking for Healthy Kids Culinary Training at The Culinary Institute of America last week! Special shoutout to our primary funder for this event, The Rachael Ray Foundation, without whom this wouldn't be possible.👏#Schoollunch #USFA

🌽Vegetables - Who Knew? This week at The Culinary Institute of America was a game changer for our attendees. Vegetables were prepared in 50+ ways! We look forward to hearing all the ways the students enhance the vegetable selections in their districts in the months to come!

"Quickles"="Quick" + "Pickles"-This Cooking for Healthy Kids recipe is an alumni fav! We love the idea of taking something so simple & customizing it to your student's taste! Andrew Mora (NYCPS OFNS) for shared that this is something he will be taking back to his district! #USFA

🤝 Connection & Collaboration! Day Three at the Cooking for Healthy Kids Training is GRAIN DAY! Events like this aren't just about the food-it's also about the learning that comes from collaborating with your peers like Montgomery County PS attendee Robert Weinstein. #Schoolmeals

👨‍🍳 Trainers Make All the Difference! 👏 We love our Chef Trainers that lead the week of learning - Chef Sam and Chef Cathy do an incredible job from group instruction, to one-on-one guidance, to classroom lessons! What a wealth of knowledge in those two! #schoolfood #schoolmeals

🔪 Plank-Stick-Dice! Our attendees went back to the basics on day one with a thorough course in knife safety, proper use, & learning a variety of cutting styles! Preparing the vegetable & fruit selections that will be used during the week was on the agenda & they did fantastic!

👨‍🍳👩‍🍳 It's that time of year again! Spring means Cooking for Healthy Kids at The Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio! Next week we’ll be diving into hands-on training with amazing school nutrition pros. In the meantime, view last year's highlights. bit.ly/4stCVqI

📣 At the end of 2026 our Executive Director, Dr. Katie Wilson, is beginning her well-deserved retirement. This means we will have an open position. Job posting: bit.ly/2026-USFA-EDRo… Letter of interest and CV due to kwilson@urbanschoolfoodalliance.org by 5 p.m. CST 4-24-26.

Thrilled to announce the official release of USFA's “Sourcing Locally” toolkit! This 20-page interactive guide helps school nutrition programs source fresh regional foods by U.S. region.Developed in part with USDA Cooperative Agreement. Press release: bit.ly/3MR4TNx

📣 MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Montgomery County Public Schools Department of Food Nutrition Services 🎉 As the largest district in Maryland, they’re serving up nutrition to nearly 100,000 students every day! Recent highlights: Emergency Feeding, Taste-Testing, New Menu Items!

We've completed our new interactive toolkit, "Sourcing Locally" — a 20-page resource to help school nutrition programs find & source fresh local products by region. Completed in part with the USDA Cooperative Agreement. Stay tuned for the press release! 🔗 bit.ly/3ONyyrs

Day 3 highlight: Site visit to O'Farrell Charter School (San Diego Unified Sandi Coast Cafe)! Rode electric buses, toured kitchen w/ new Combi Ovens, enjoyed fresh local outdoor lunch, met Farm-to-School coordinator & tasted CA cumquats/oranges. Serving 90k+ meals/day—inspiring!

USFA Member Meeting Highlight: Industry Hour! Thanks to all our industry partners for traveling to join us & spending 2 full days connecting with members from large urban districts. 🏆 Big congrats to Growcer for winning the District's Choice 2026 Vendor Innovation Award! #USFA