School lunch programme
Healthy food makes children healthy, right? True, but in order for kids to eat healthy foods, they need to have access to them first. Unfortunately, healthy food is hard to come by in today’s school lunch program. School cafeterias are severely underfunded even with the help of the Child Feeding Act. Passed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1963, the Child Nutrition Act is a federal law that stems from the National School Lunch Program responsible for feeding more than 30 million children every day in more than 101,000 public and private schools. However, with inflation and cuts in school budgets, it only saves schools about $1 per student. Cafeterias simply cannot provide the healthy, fresh 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 surplus farmers’ stock, and while it may be a cost-effective way to get expensive food items, it can also be disastrous as proved in 2008 when one of the largest suppliers of meat to the National School Lunch Program was caught slaughtering bad cows.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act
The good news is that there is a bill coming to 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 funding for the school lunch program by the federal government in 30 years. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed unanimously by the Senate in August 2010 and was scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives by the end of September. It seemed like a no-brainer especially since the Senate passed the bill through a process called unanimous approval where they agreed to pass it without a voice vote. Since then, the bill has been bipartisan in Congress and will not be voted on by the House of Representatives until after the Nov. 15 election. This legislation is near and dear to the heart of the First Lady, Michelle Obama, who is looking to Congress to pass this law as a key part of her Let’s Move campaign. Its goal is to eliminate childhood obesity within a generation and putting more money into healthy food in our children’s schools would go a long way to achieving that goal.
This bill also addresses the lack of adequate funding for low-income students. This legislation “invests significantly in new initiatives designed to automatically enroll more eligible low-income children into national school lunch and school breakfast programs, and includes a significant expansion of after-school nutrition programs,” explained U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark, chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Children Act would also increase nutrition standards in schools by allowing the Minister of Agriculture to set nutritional standards. The Department of Agriculture continues to adjust and improve the nutrition standards for school meals by including more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and less sugar and processed foods. In fact, this legislation could mark the end of the era of fast food vending machines in schools.
The future of the school lunch program
Assuming Congress passes the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in November, schoolchildren across the country will benefit from healthier food choices, as cafeterias will have enough funding to purchase high-quality food. The $4.5 billion will be distributed over the next 10 years and should put us on the right track to reduce childhood obesity rates. However, school administrators need more help in order to make use of this extra money. Since they are used to buying most frozen foods in bulk, they will need to establish relationships with distributors who also deal in fresh foods. Matching local farmers with schools can help bridge the gap between meat and produce, and the hungry kids who will eat it for lunch. Unfortunately, healthy, fresh food tends to be more expensive than frozen processed foods, so it’s important for schools to know how to get this food without breaking their budgets. If schools are encouraged (or forced) to remove takeaway vending machines, they need ideas about the types of machines they should replace. There are vending machines that offer healthy items such as french fries, nuts and dried fruits as well as beverage machines that dispense milk, juice and water as opposed to sugar and chemicals. A few helpful hints, as well as a list of growers and distributors willing to participate in the School Lunch Program, will help principals make good use of their newfound funds.
If Congress does not pass this important legislation, it is critical that we teach our children the kinds of healthy foods and foods that will make them grow strong and strong. Schools can also help with this effort by removing fast food vending machines on their own. Replacing them with healthy vending machines is a giant step forward in reducing the sugar and empty calories kids consume when they’re allowed to make their own snack decisions. School principals and food service workers are doing the best they can with their budgets, but there are ways to improve children’s health even without $4.5 billion in aid from the government.