U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was in Clear Lake Monday afternoon, along with a panel of people representing child nutrition and healthy meals, to celebrate the recent announcement that Clear Lake High School was one of four recipients of a Healthy Meals Incentives Lunch Trailblazer Award for their innovative efforts to improve the nutritional quality of meals for their students. Clear Lake was recognized for reducing sodium in their menu items, increasing the use of fresh local foods, and educating the students about healthy eating habits.
“I appreciate the opportunity to be here and want to congratulate the Clear Lake Community School District for its commitment to young people, not just on the education side, but also on the nutrition side,” said Vilsack. “This is a school that is a cut above the rest. It’s one of the schools that has been acknowledged by Action for Healthy Kids. At the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) we decided that it was going to be important for us to continue to find ways to help schools be able to do a better job of what they all want to do, which is to feed their children well.”
Vista Suarez Fletcher, Midwest Regional Administrator of USDA Food and Nutrition Service, works closely with state partners in the Dept. of Education and with all 16 nutrition assistance programs. “I was actually here in Oct. 2022 for Back to School Lunch Week and I was totally amazed at the work that Julie and her team are doing,” Fletcher said.
Julie Udelhofen, Clear Lake Community School District food service director has been hard at work making sure that every dollar of grant money that comes her way is put to the best use. She has utilized the local and regional food systems that support small and disadvantaged farmers and she has established partnerships with producers by working with the Iowa Food Hub. “By utilizing our grant funds, building partnerships, purchasing equipment, staying vigilant about the quality of food that we purchase, taking advantage of opportunities to educate our kids about healthy eating habits, the Clear Lake Food Service Department is giving 100 percent,” Udelhofen said.
It does indeed take a village to raise, or in this case feed, a child and the panelists that arrived with Vilsack are that village and all have worked with Udelhofen to support school meals, Clear Lake and the community. Panelists represented Healthy Harvest of North Iowa, a connector between the producers and the schools or between schools and other state opportunities; ISU Extension and Outreach’s Farm to School procurement program; a local food grower; the Iowa Food Hub; and the Iowa Healthiest State Initiative, which improve access to nutritious foods, especially fruits and vegetables.
But the work that Udelhofen has done in the Clear Lake schools doesn’t end here. It’s not a one-time thing, it’s just the beginning. Rob Bisceglie, CEO of Action for Healthy Kids said that Udelhofen will be recognized at the Healthy Meals Fall 2024 summit in Las Vegas, Nev. where thousands of people will be there to recognize her achievements. He said, “It does take a lot of work and allows us to share best practices amongst the group to make sure that things that are happening here and in Clear Lake, if they are applicable in other places, we can make sure that they’re being transported to those other places. And then, really importantly, discuss strategies around how we can make this work sustainable.”
The award program was jointly created by the USDA and Action for Healthy Kids as part of the USDA’s Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative.
