The Farm to Fork Initiative, a project of the Windward Fund, is a coalition of food policy stakeholders that work toward policy change at the federal level and support policy implementation at the regional and local level to emphasize the health of smaller food systems. 

The coalition takes initiative in four policy priority areas: Equal access and addressing inequities; labor and economic advancement; environmental health and sustainability; and health care and nutrition. 

The Federal Good Food Purchasing Coalition is working to spur a more just, healthy, resilient, and sustainable food system through values-aligned food purchasing and food service at the federal level.

Values-aligned food service means that the government can be a leader in prioritizing local and community-based economies, a valued workforce, environmental sustainability, animal welfare, community health and nutrition, transparency and accountability, and racial equity in its food purchasing and food service operations. 

As the largest food purchaser in the world, the federal government has the opportunity and responsibility to ensure that its food purchasing advances, rather than undermines, the public good. Shifting to more scratch cooking forces school food programs to adopt a new perspective with their food purchasing, creating space for operators to pursue more values-aligned purchasing.

The Healthy Future Students and Planet Coalition, led by Friends of the Earth, consists of over 120 groups that support the Healthy Future Students and Earth Pilot Program Act. 

Through this legislation, the coalition seeks to move Congress to support school food that is healthy for children and good for the planet by making school food more culturally affirming as well as incorporating more vegetarian and vegan options into school meals. 

The Healthy Future Students and Earth Pilot Program Act also seeks to reduce the climate impacts from school food, investing in local businesses and farms, and reducing racial health inequities.

“We know that students need to be eating more fresh fruits, vegetables, beans, grains and pulses, which must lead us to serving more healthy, plant-based options in schools. Schools often face cost, technical, educational and marketing barriers to serving plant-based meal options since federal subsidies often make animal-based foods cheaper. The Healthy Future Students and Earth Act will start to level the playing field so that school districts can meet the growing need for healthy, delicious plant-based menu items.”

— Chef Ann Cooper

The National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity is a coalition of more than 520 national, state, and local organizations that was founded by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an independent consumer advocacy organization that applies science-based goals to improve food systems and support healthy eating in the U.S. 

This coalition is most well known for helping to pass the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010, which sought to help ensure every American child had access to the nutrition they need to grow into healthy adults. It’s helped increase federal funding for nutrition, physical activity, and obesity research. 

Policy priorities include advancing nutrition and food security, nutrition research, and nutrition education; strengthening child nutrition programs; improving school nutrition and physical activity policies; expanding public access to healthy foods through vending reform; and making nutritional menu labeling more widespread. 

The Healthy School Meals for All Coalition is a project of the Food Research & Action Center. As part of this coalition, we advocate and build support for nationwide Healthy School Meals for All so that schools can offer breakfast and lunch at no charge to all of their students. By providing free meals to all students, schools can help ensure that all children have the nutrition they need to thrive, as well as reallocate their resources toward improving meal quality and increasing scratch cooking. Learn more and find the latest information about which states have passed Healthy School Meals for All or have active campaigns—some of which the Chef Ann Foundation is a member of—seeking to advance this legislation here.

“The pandemic showed us that families rely on healthy meals at school for their children, and that the income requirements for the free and reduced lunch program often miss many families in need. Healthy School Meals For All ensures all our children have access to the food and nutrition they need to thrive and meet their true potential.”

— Mara Fleishman, Chef Ann Foundation CEO

ScratchWorks is a collective of school food professionals and nonprofit organizations committed to supporting school districts in cooking school meals from scratch using whole, fresh ingredients that provide students with the nutrition they need for their educational success, health, and wellbeing.

The Chef Ann Foundation is a founding organization of ScratchWorks and works as part of the collective to advance scratch cooking across the country through vehicles such as shared learning, policy and advocacy, and in-person gatherings.

The Zero Food Waste Coalition was founded by the Harvard Food Law Policy Clinic, Natural Resources Defense Council, ReFed, and the World Wide Fund to inform and influence food waste policy at the federal, state, and local level. 

With more than 170 members across 40 states, this coalition works to reduce food waste, improve food recovery programs, and offer easily accessible and centralized resources so that communities can take action to reduce food waste. Reducing food and packaging waste is a key benefit of increasing scratch cooking in schools.