The Department of Health and Human Services announced the DEPEND initiative on Aug. 26, providing $32.5 million to improve the nutritional quality of school meals by moving away from ultra-processed foods and toward whole ingredients in federally funded school nutrition programs.
HHS announced the initiative as part of the administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The funding is designed to support schools in reformulating menus to reduce reliance on processed food products that have been linked to childhood obesity and other health conditions.
School meals are the primary daily nutrition source for millions of low-income American children. The National School Lunch Program serves approximately 30 million students each school day, making federal investment in meal quality a direct lever for affecting childhood nutrition at scale.
The DEPEND initiative follows the joint USDA-HHS Harvest to Hallways initiative, which aims to connect local farms to school cafeterias and increase the use of fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Together, the two programs represent a concerted federal effort to reshape what children eat during the school day.
The $32.5 million in funding is expected to support pilot programs, technical assistance for school nutrition directors and procurement reforms that make it easier for schools to purchase whole food ingredients. Schools participating in federal nutrition programs must meet USDA meal pattern requirements, and the initiative aims to help schools meet those standards with less-processed options.
The School Nutrition Association, which represents school food service professionals, has emphasized the logistical and cost challenges of transitioning from processed to whole food ingredients at cafeteria scale. Kitchen infrastructure, staff training and supply chain availability all affect the feasibility of menu changes.
Pediatricians and nutrition researchers have broadly supported efforts to improve school meal quality, citing evidence linking ultra-processed food consumption to higher rates of obesity, diabetes and other chronic conditions in children.