From the ER to the School Lunch Line: Our Case for ‘No Antibiotics Ever’ Chicken in School Cafeterias 

About once a week, emergency room physician Dr. Avir Mitra sends a patient to the ICU—not because their care is outside his capacity, but because they’re not responding to typical antibiotics. This is what antibiotic resistance looks like up close—and one of the many reasons our team took to Capitol Hill to continue our fight for no antibiotics ever (NAE) chicken in school meals nationwide through our Raise the Tray campaign.  

Our ask is that the USDA make no antibiotics ever chicken available on the USDA Foods Available List—the catalog that school districts across the country buy from with their federal entitlement dollars. This change requires no legislation or appropriations—it simply gives school districts a more affordable pathway to serving NAE chicken in their cafeterias.  

Advocating for our cause, Mitra joined a panel of experts at a congressional briefing, where staffers across both sides of the aisle heard from people who see the risks firsthand: doctors, school administrators, and farmers. Together, they discussed how antibiotic use in livestock production escalates the threat of antibiotic resistance, the challenges schools face in accessing NAE chicken, and how a USDA pathway could strengthen the market for American farmers raising NAE chicken. 

Mitra opened the briefing with what he’s watched over his career. Infections that once responded to standard antibiotics stopped responding, and as doctors move to stronger ones, some infections simply don’t respond. “If you want an appendectomy, if you want a C-section, none of that can happen without antibiotics,” said Mitra. 

He’s connecting what he’s seeing in the hospital to what happens on farms. According to Mitra, 70% of antibiotics in the U.S. are used in animal agriculture, often in animals that aren’t even sick. Plus, those resistant germs don’t stay on the farm—they can travel in runoff from farmland into nearby water, in dust carried into the air, and on the food that leaves the farm. “We are training the enemy on our farms, and we’re basically growing our next health crisis,” Mitra added. 

Bobbi Jo Webber, a fourth-generation independent family farmer, argued that livestock production doesn’t have to be that way. She and her family raise organic NAE chickens for Perdue Farms, maintaining their health through plenty of space, natural light, clean water, and strict biosecurity protocols on her farm—and not an antibiotic in sight.  

Schools want NAE chicken, too—with many purchasing it outside of their federal budgets. Dr. Katie Wilson, Executive Director of the Urban School Food Alliance and a former USDA Deputy Undersecretary, said two of the largest public-school districts in the country, Los Angeles Unified and New York City, already require NAE chicken in their school lunch programs. “There is a real reckoning in school meals,” said Wilson. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re the smallest school district or the largest school district, communities want antibiotics out of their products. At the grocery store, I can choose chicken that’s never had antibiotics, but when a child comes through a lunch line, they get what is put on their tray. They don’t have the right to choose.” 

Jason Tepper, a K-12 school nutrition chef, added that he knows the workaround all too well—his district serves NAE chicken only because of vendor relationships he spent six years building outside the federal system. 

Our advocacy around this issue began in 2025, after we learned that federal school meal standards cover whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, but set no quality standards for meat and seafood—items that are typically the center of the lunch tray. We launched our Raise the Tray campaign, bringing together 27 organizations including the Urban School Food Alliance, the Chef Ann Foundation, Perdue Farms, and Farmer Focus, to co-sign our open letter urging USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to remove antibiotics from school meals. Today, more than 27,000 people across the U.S. (including many ButcherBox customers!) have signed our petition in support of the work. 

The gap Tepper mentioned—a desire for NAE chicken without an easy way to access it—is what our Raise the Tray campaign is all about. It’s not a mandate, or a ban—it’s an ask to make a practical pathway for schools to add it to their meals.  

Kelly Hilovsky, senior director of sourcing and sustainability at ButcherBox, closed the briefing with a clear message to staffers: The demand is there, the supply is there, and what’s missing is a federal pathway. 

If you’d like to learn more, sign our petition or contact your representative to tell them you want NAE chicken on school lunch trays.