HHS Announces $32.5 Million DEPEND Initiative to Transform School Nutrition

TAMPA, FL - AUGUST 26, 2026 - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) thisweek announced a new $32.5 million initiative to help schools replace highly processed foods with nutrient-dense, real food and identify effective, scalable strategies for improving school meals.

The initiative, Developing Evidence for Programs to Ensure Nutrition for Development (DEPEND), will be led by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). DEPEND will make funding available to schools and school districts to test innovative approaches to delivering nutritious foods to school-aged children while strengthening the evidence base for school nutrition interventions.

Schools and districts can learn more about DEPEND by visiting the newly launched HHS Real Food in Schools website. The application cycle will open soon with the first round of funding expected to be awarded in October.

"Millions of American children depend on school meals every day, and we will not spend taxpayer dollars on food that undermines their health," said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. "DEPEND will give schools the tools to replace highly processed foods with real, nutrient-dense food - and use rigorous science to prove what works. We are building a practical, affordable playbook that schools across America can use to serve healthier food and raise healthier children."

Schools and school districts face persistent challenges involving procurement, workforce, infrastructure, operations, and finances that can make it difficult to provide healthier meals. At the same time, evidence remains limited on which approaches are effective, scalable, sustainable, and economically viable across diverse school settings.

Through one-time investments, DEPEND will support School Food Authorities, school districts, and individual schools pursuing innovative approaches in four key areas:

• Food Purchasing & Supply
• Workforce & Food Production
• Student Demand & Meal Economics
• Transforming Operations & Infrastructure

Awards are expected to range from $75,000 to $2.5 million, depending on the scope of the proposal. If the initiative is successful, HHS aims to provide additional funding in fiscal year 2027.

DEPEND will prioritize flexibility and innovation. Rather than prescribing a single model for every school, the initiative will fund pilots, partnerships, and new ideas to identify approaches that can deliver healthier meals within schools' existing recurring resources. The goal is to determine what works - and what does not - and give schools across America practical models they can replicate.

The initiative will also partner with the NIH All of Us Research Program to help ensure findings are broadly available to the public and can benefit schools nationwide. A Coordinating Center will oversee DEPEND activities, harmonize efforts across participating sites, and help make results available to school districts as quickly as possible.

The DEPEND initiative advances President Trump's Make America Healthy Again Strategy to improve the nation's school nutrition system by moving away from highly processed, nutrient-poor calories and toward nutrient-dense, real food while generating rigorous evidence about the approaches that produce better outcomes for America's children.