Scratch Cooked Meals for Students Act
Sponsored By: Representative Hayes, Jahana [D-CT-5]
Introduced
Summary
This bill would create competitive scratch cooking pilot grants to help schools prepare meals from whole or minimally processed ingredients. Grants would cover training, equipment, staff time, procurement tools, and a nonprofit-run technical assistance center.
Show full summary
- Students and families: Students would get more meals made from whole or minimally processed ingredients and more culinary education and taste tests.
- School food authorities: Eligible authorities could receive two-year grants to buy equipment, update kitchens, invest in procurement software, and meet nutrition standards; priority goes to districts serving the most students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
- School workers: Grants can pay for professional development and extra food preparation time, and authorities with collective bargaining or agreements get top priority.
- Support and oversight: The Department of Agriculture would contract with nonprofit organizations to run a technical assistance and resource center and grant recipients must complete needs assessments and strategic plans with that center.
*This bill would authorize $20 million per year for fiscal years 2027 through 2031, increasing federal spending.*
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
1 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
More scratch-cooked meals for students
This bill would create a Scratch Cooking Pilot Program to award competitive grants to school food authorities. The Secretary would set up the program within 180 days of enactment. Grants would last 2 school years. Schools could use grants for training, equipment or kitchen changes, extra staff pay for food prep, student taste tests and culinary education, procurement software, and other actions to meet lunch and breakfast nutrition rules. The bill would authorize $20,000,000 per year for fiscal years 2027 through 2031. The Secretary could reserve up to 15 percent for a nonprofit-run technical assistance center (including its admin costs) and up to 5 percent for other Secretary admin. Priority would go to schools that serve the most students eligible for free or reduced-price meals, are self-operated (or assure they will be), and have or promise collective bargaining or similar agreements. Grant recipients would work with the technical assistance center to do a needs assessment and strategic plan, and they would report within 180 days after the grant ends on changes in spending on whole or raw ingredients and the share of menu items made from scratch.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Hayes, Jahana [D-CT-5]
CT • D
Cosponsors
Rep. Fitzpatrick, Brian K. [R-PA-1]
PA • R
Sponsored 5/20/2026
Rep. Brownley, Julia [D-CA-26]
CA • D
Sponsored 5/20/2026
Rep. Grijalva, Adelita S. [D-AZ-7]
AZ • D
Sponsored 5/21/2026
Rep. Salinas, Andrea [D-OR-6]
OR • D
Sponsored 5/21/2026
Rep. Deluzio, Christopher R. [D-PA-17]
PA • D
Sponsored 5/21/2026
Del. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large]
DC • D
Sponsored 5/21/2026
Rep. McBride, Sarah [D-DE-At Large]
DE • D
Sponsored 5/29/2026
Rep. Pingree, Chellie [D-ME-1]
ME • D
Sponsored 6/10/2026
Rep. Adams, Alma S. [D-NC-12]
NC • D
Sponsored 6/10/2026
Rep. Schrier, Kim [D-WA-8]
WA • D
Sponsored 7/6/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov