Team Nutrition is an initiative of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. Its mission is to promote lifelong healthy food choices and physical activity by improving the nutrition practices of the USDA child nutrition programs. Team Nutrition work to provide resources to schools, childcare settings, and summer meal sites that participate in these programs.
Team Nutrition uses three strategies to change behavior:
- Provide training and technical assistance to child nutrition professionals to enable them to prepare and serve nutritious meals that appeal to children.
- Increase nutrition education through multiple communication channels to help children have the knowledge, skills, and motivation to make healthy food and physical activity choices as part of a healthy lifestyle.
- Build support for healthy school and childcare environments that encourage nutritious food choices and physically active lifestyles.
Team Nutrition Training Grants have been a cornerstone of the Team Nutrition initiative since its inception in 1995, and play an important role in helping state agencies deliver training and nutrition education that supports the USDA child nutrition programs.
North Dakota Team Nutrition FY 2024.
USDA Team Nutrition Training Grant for Meal Pattern Modernization
Here is a summary of our plans and the other states that received this funding.
The program we have planned includes an in-person culinary experience to work with recipes that reduce added sugar and sodium on school menus. Also included is a classroom session that provides all the background information and education for you to successfully implement the current USDA Meal Pattern Requirements.
School year 2025-26 focused on reducing added sugar. The full classroom session and the related culinary videos are available on the North Dakota Educational Hub.
Added Sugar Intensive and Culinary Training Recipes:
School year 2026-27 shifts the focus to reducing sodium in school meals. Incentivized hands-on culinary training will be offered in North and South Dakota several times during the school year. Specific dates, registration links and more information will be made available in our newsletters.
The full classroom session and the related culinary videos will be available on the North Dakota Educational Hub; featured recipes will be linked here as early as June 30, 2027.
If you have questions about this training program, please reach out to Amy Nelson, Project Director, at amylnelson@nd.gov or Emily Karel, Project Coordinator, at ekarel@nd.gov