The Wheaton school district has been awarded a portion of grant money offered through the USDA Healthy Meal Incentives for Schools program.

According to the USDA, the district received $46,509, which it intends to use primarily for a new walk-in freezer, plus other items to be determined.

Trish Wilson, Wheaton superintendent, said the freezer’s price tag is $33,265, leaving $13,244 available. She said the purchase became necessary after the district’s 20-year-old walk-in freezer broke down when it was moved to the new cafeteria.

“When we moved it to the new saferoom and cafeteria, the compressor froze,” Wilson said. “We’d have to put a lot of money forward the refrigeration process in a 20-plus-yearold freezer, so we were excited this came through when it did.”

Wilson said the cost to repair the old unit would have been about $9,500, and the district aims to sell the box piece of the old freezer to recoup some funds.

“This new freezer is where OPPA keeps all the frozen foods and where they will come out of for breakfasts and lunches, K-12,” Wilson said. “And, with our new facility, we have purchased some new equipment, so we will wait to see what appliance needs we might have [to put remaining grant funds toward].”

Northeast Vernon County School District was the only other in southwest Missouri to receive funds, and Wheaton was one of only four school districts in the state of Missouri to be approved.

De Kalb received $15,903, Belton was awarded $90,100, and Northeast Vernon County received $124,150.

USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has established the Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative to improve the nutritional quality of school meals through food systems transformation, school food authority recognition and technical assistance, the generation and sharing of innovative ideas and tested practices, and grants.

FNS and Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK) have worked together to award nearly $30 million in grants to 264 school food authorities (SFAs) across 44 states and the District of Columbia, reaching students in some of the nation’s highest need schools. Each school district will receive up to $150,000 to support them in improving the nutritional quality of their meals and modernizing their operations, through efforts which could include:

• Innovative staff training programs

• Kitchen updates and renovations

• Redesigning food preparation and service spaces

• Other school-district led efforts to support school meals and school nutrition professionals

More information about the grants can be found at https://healthymealsincentives. org/grantees/.