FoodCorps has announced the launch of an eight-year, $250 million initiative aimed at ensuring that all U.S. schoolchildren have access to free nourishing meals and hands-on nutrition education.

Announced at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to launch a national strategy to end hunger and increase access to healthy food, FoodCorps’ Nourishing Futures Initiative aims to reach 500,000 students annually by 2030 by partnering with schools and districts. The organization also plans to prepare 1,000 emerging BIMPOC (Black, Indigenous, multiracial, and people of color) leaders for mission-driven careers in the fields of food education and school nutrition. In addition, FoodCorps will mobilize a million supporters to advance policies that expand free school meals; fund food educators; update garden, kitchen, and cafeteria infrastructure; strengthen local supply chains; and support the food education and school nutrition workforce.

To date, FoodCorps has secured initial commitments totaling $53 million from funders including MacKenzie Scott ($15 million), Susan and David Tunnell, Melissa Williams, Inclusive Capital Partners Foundation ($3 million), the Olo for Good Fund at Tides Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg, Newman’s Own ($3.25 million), Rachael Ray, and Walmart ($3.3 million) foundations. Corporations including Mars Food, Orgain Clean Nutrition, and Thrive Market also have made initial commitments. In addition, Nourishing Futures Initiative will be supported by AmeriCorps and USDA funding.

“By setting the goal to reach every student, especially children of color who face disproportionate inequities in health and education, we can ensure a future where the role of food in school meets critical needs for nourishment, and becomes a source of joy and power, too,” said FoodCorps co-founder and CEO Curt Ellis, who served on the independent, bipartisan Task Force on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.

The Nourishing Futures Initiative is among several projects announced at the White House conference in support of five pillars: improving food access and affordability, integrating nutrition and health, empowering consumers to make and have access to healthy choices, supporting physical activity for all, and enhancing nutrition and food security research. Additional initiatives include a commitment by the American Academy of Pediatrics and Share Our Strength to offer training to all member pediatricians on both screening for nutrition insecurity and referring patients to federal and community nutrition resources; Action for Healthy Kids’ plan to partner with 50 school districts to help design, implement, and evaluate programming on healthy eating, physical activity, and mental health; a Special Olympics initiative to expand fitness, nutrition counseling, health coaching, and SNAP-Ed benefits for people with intellectual disabilities; and a partnership between the Rockefeller Foundation and the American Heart Association to mobilize $250 million for a national Food is Medicine Research Initiative.

(Photo credit: Kelly Campbell, courtesy of FoodCorps)