school lunch program
Healthy food makes for healthy kids, right? Okay, but in order for kids to eat healthy foods, they must first have access to them. Unfortunately, healthy foods are hard to find in today’s school lunch programs. School cafeterias are woefully short even with the help of the Child Nutrition Act. In 1963 President Lyndon B. Passed by Johnson, the Child Nutrition Act is a federal law that stems from the National School Lunch Program that is responsible for feeding more than 30 million children each day in more than 101,000 public and private schools. However, with inflation and cuts in school budgets, it only provides $1 per student to schools. The cafeteria simply cannot provide the fresh healthy food that children need. Sometimes schools have no choice but to participate in the Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Program for items such as meat and cheese. These items come from farmers’ surplus stock and, although this can be a cost-effective way to obtain expensive food items, it can be disastrous as was proved in 2008 when the use of meat for the National School Lunch Program One of the biggest suppliers was caught slaughtering sick cattle. Cows.
Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act
The good news is there’s a bill up for a vote in the House of Representatives that would add $4.5 billion over the next 10 years to help feed America’s school children. This would be the first non-inflationary increase in school lunch program funding by the federal government in 30 years. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed unanimously by the Senate in August, 2010 and is scheduled for a House vote by the end of September. The Senate seemed to pass the bill by a process called unanimous consent, where they agreed to pass it without a voice vote. The bipartisan bill has since been delayed in Congress and will not be voted on by the House until after the November 15 election. The legislation is near and dear to the heart of First Lady Michelle Obama, who is looking to Congress to pass the bill as a key part of her Let’s Move campaign. Her goal is to end childhood obesity within a generation, and allocating more money for healthy food in our children’s schools will go a long way toward meeting that goal.
The bill also addresses the lack of proper funding for low-income students. US Senator Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark. The chairman of the US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry explained that the legislation “invests heavily in new initiatives designed to automatically enroll more eligible low-income children with our national school lunch and school breakfast program and includes a substantial expansion of the after-school feeding program.”
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act would also raise nutrition standards in schools by allowing the Secretary of Agriculture to set nutrition standards. The Department of Agriculture continues to revise and improve nutrition standards for school meals by including more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and less sugar and processed food. In fact, this legislation could mark the end of the era of junk food vending machines in schools.
future of school lunch programs
Assuming Congress passes the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in November, school children nationwide will benefit from healthier food options, as cafeterias will have enough money to buy high-quality food. $4.5 billion will be distributed over the next 10 years and should put us on track to reduce childhood obesity rates. However, school administrators need more support to make good use of these additional funds. Since they are used to buying mostly wholesale frozen food, they will need to establish relationships with distributors who also deal with fresh food. Connecting local farmers to schools can help bridge the gap between meat and produce, and the hungry kids who will eat it for lunch. Unfortunately, fresh and healthy food tends to cost more than frozen processed food, so it’s important for schools to know how to get this food without breaking their budget. If schools are encouraged (or forced) to remove their junk food vending machines, ideas are needed for what type of machines to replace them with. Vending machines providing healthier items such as baked chips, nuts and dried fruits are available as well as beverage machines that dispense milk, juice and water as opposed to sugar and chemicals. Some helpful pointers, as well as a list of farmers and distributors willing to participate in the school lunch program, will help school administrators make good use of their new funds.
If Congress doesn’t pass this important legislation, it is vital that we teach our children what types of foods are healthy and what foods will make them grow big and strong. Schools can also help in this effort by removing junk food vending machines from themselves. Replacing them with healthier vending machines is a big step in limiting sugar and empty calories when kids are allowed to make their own snack decisions. School administrators and food service workers can do the best they can with their budgets, but there are ways to improve children’s health, even without $4.5 billion in help from the government.
Source by Austin Brawner
