As part of the award, PHA Meals Program Director Michelle Doyle has received a special registration and travel stipend to attend the Healthy Meals Summit in Las Vegas this October. Congratulations to Michelle and the Meals Team on this amazing recognition!
The Trailblazer Award Series highlights school meals programs paving the path with gradual changes in school menus to be consistent with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, specifically for reducing sodium in school lunch and added sugars in school breakfast.
Over the past year, PHA has worked to lower sugar in breakfast in preparation of the 2026-2027 regulations. From March 2024 to March 2025, on average we reduced sugar in a complete breakfast meal by 8 grams per meal. We achieved this by:
- Only serving 4-ounce cups of yogurt with 5g of added sugar.
- Only serving cereals with ≤ 6g of sugar per ounce.
- Adding low/no-sugar options to our menu.
- Only serving sweetened breakfast items such as muffins up to two times a week.