At the Health Fund, we believe that every child in Michigan should have access to nutritious foods — it’s imperative for their health, growth, and development. Schools are essential partners in creating progress toward this goal.
Nearly 1.4 million children are enrolled in public schools in Michigan, making school food systems some of the largest and most influential nutrition institutions in the state related to children’s health.
In the past several years we’ve seen encouraging changes in Michigan’s school food environment. These developments were heavily influenced by the efforts of our grantees and partners, who have built new models, tested promising practices, and provided leadership and coordination to support equitable food access and improve nutrition quality.
Universal free school meals
During the 2023-2024 school year, the state budget included funds for free school meals for all Michigan children for the first time. This funding made daily breakfast and lunch available to every child attending a district that participates in Michigan’s school meals program, while forgiving any existing school meal debts owed by families.
This equitable, cost-free approach to feeding children in schools is a major positive step, combating hunger and supporting children in their health, development, and academic success.
It also serves to reduce time and financial burdens on families, as well as stigma around participation in free school food programs by making access universal for all. The continuation of the program in future years is subject to inclusion in the budget by the governor and the legislature.
10 Cents a Meal
Serving locally grown food in schools is good for kids, food producers, and communities. Locally grown foods are fresher and contain higher nutritional quality than non-local sources, which is why Michigan’s 10 Cents a Meal program has become an important resource for schools across the state.
Managed through a partnership between the state of Michigan, Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, and the MSU Center for Regional Food Systems, 10 Cents a Meal provides supplemental grant funding to help schools and early childhood centers purchase fruit, vegetables, and dry beans from local Michigan producers.
The program is reaching a significant and growing number of children: an estimated 593,000 kids were served during the 2023-2024 program year, with $9.3 million in grant dollars distributed across 270 educational institutions in 66 Michigan counties.
Where do we go next?
These programs represent big steps in the right direction. We also know they don’t provide answers for all our state’s challenges related to nutrition and children’s health, and major equity gaps remain.
The Health Fund’s Nutrition & Healthy Lifestyles team continues to focus on ways to build on these programs through investments that make school food systems stronger, more equitable, and more effective in serving children’s nutritional needs.
As we look ahead, here are additional areas that we think are important for schools, food producers, policymakers, and other school food stakeholders to address together:
1) Ensuring school food has high nutrition quality:
Access to food is critical, but access alone is not enough if the food served doesn’t meet kids’ nutritional needs. Partners across the state need to continue to seek out innovative approaches to serve food with high nutrition quality that children will eat.
2) Investing in local food access:
Educational institutions need infrastructure and support — 10 Cents a Meal is a great start — to maximize the benefits of locally grown foods for kids, including relationships with local food producers, processors, and suppliers. This is especially true in schools and communities where existing equity gaps make these challenges greater.
3) Promoting nutrition literacy:
It’s critical to pair access to nutritious foods with education and skills that help children understand their nutritional needs and support positive choices.
4) Incorporating youth leadership:
Many of the most successful programs around the state pair access to healthy food with opportunities for children to have a voice and shared leadership in the nutritional decisions that affect them.
We know it’s easy to talk about these solutions and more challenging to execute them in the real world. Each school district is different, and the local food context varies widely throughout the state. Considerations of equity play a big role in the experience of communities.
That’s why the Health Fund is deeply committed to remaining an active partner helping schools, organizations, and communities across the state develop programs and partnerships that work in their specific contexts.
In a future post, we’ll share an example from Muskegon County where a robust collaboration between schools, farmers, and youth is producing exciting results. In the meantime, please visit our Nutrition & Healthy Lifestyles page or contact a member of our team to learn more about our grantmaking in this area.