USFA 2023 Annual Report

LETTER FROM OUR LEADERSHIP

DR. KATIE WILSON

Michael Rosenberger

Executive Director

Chairperson

As we reflect on 2023 at the Urban School Food Alliance, a special thought comes to mind: convergence encourages transformation. By bringing together different ideas, backgrounds, lived experiences, and the courage to do what is best for our food system and food supply, combined with passion for our mission of leveraging our collective voice to transform school meals , the members, funders, and stakeholders of the Urban School Food Alliance accomplished transformational work. Coming out of the COVID-19 crisis, we were forced to look at things differently and break down barriers and silos to find new pathways forward. These pathways included disrupting the school food marketplace with a new, clean-label specification for a healthier chicken product that opened doors for small processors, while developing a better-for-you product to serve our children. This was a monumental task that took courage, patience, knowledge, and the willingness to be bold and go outside the lines in the established school food system process. But we were successful. We learned a lot about the poultry industry and will use those learnings to try again in an even bigger and bolder manner. The volume of chicken our

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Letter from our Leadership

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