The Urban School Food Alliance, whose members serve a combined 3.7 million students across the nation, nearly doubled its membership this year, gaining five members, with Boston as the newest one. The alliance, a nonprofit formed in 2012, says its school-district members “share best practices and leverage their collective purchasing power to drive school food quality up and costs down through socially responsible practices.”
Boston, the largest school district in Massachusetts, has 57,000 students at 125 schools. Also joining this year were Broward County schools, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Clark County schools, in Las Vegas, Nev.; Philadelphia; and Baltimore.
The alliance gained attention by helping school districts move toward an antibiotic-free standard for vendors to follow when supplying chicken products. It also “rolled out the use of compostable round plates at cafeterias, removing 225 million polystyrene trays from landfills every year to ensure sound environmental practices.