The United States Congress passed the Child Nutrition bill on December 2nd, which everyone hopes will lead to an increased availability of healthier food for many children and youth.
United States First Lady Michelle Obama lobbied for the bill, touting it as a way to fight both obesity and hunger. The first lady has long been a proponent of teaching children to eat fresh, healthfully balanced diets and this bill, which she calls ” a groundbreaking piece of legislation” according to the New York Times, it will put an emphasis on adding fresh fruits and vegetables to school provided meals.
Though the new bill may seem like a clear win for children and for the health of the nation, it comes with a serious catch. About half of the $4.5 billion dollar cost of the bill will be paid for by cutting the food stamps program starting a few years from now. Some House Democrats and advocates for the poor fought the bill in September, pointing out that expanding child nutrition programs by cutting money out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program simply takes important resources from one group of needy people and gives them to another.
School districts that adopt new, USDA-established meal nutrition standards will get a 6-cent-per-meal increase in their reimbursement rate from the USDA’s National School Lunch Program, which provides free or reduced-price meals to students in low-income families. The USDA has 18 months to determine the new standards once the bill is signed, but the agency claims it has already been working on them and has vowed to release a proposal by the end of this year, according to Diane Pratt-Heavner, a spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association.
There are plenty of other tangible parts of the bill that impact parents, foster care providers, educators and after-school programs. Here’s what is known about the bill:
* Nearly half the funding, about $2.2 billion, is allotted from cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called food stamps). Some people have criticized this funding reallocation because it means taking meals away from low-income kids while they are home, and using it to feed them while at school. President Barack Obama has assured House Democrats these SNAP cuts, which would not go into effect until a few years, will be replaced with other to-be-determined funding sources.
* There is also a provision in the bill that requires the USDA to develop healthier nutrition standards to other forms of food distribution at schools besides the official school lunch program, such as vending machines and snacks sold at school stores.
* Streamlining the certification process for students to receive free or reduced price meals so that there is no paperwork required from the child’s family. Foster children will automatically be eligible for free meals, and students whose families receive SNAP benefits will also be automatically eligible for free meals, a provision that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will lead to 115,000 additional students enrolling annually.
* Expansion and reform of the USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), which subsidizes after-school programs providing snacks and meals to youth participants. Currently, the program is in 13 states, but the Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act allows all 50 states to participate. Any after-school program located in an area served by a school in which at least half the student population is eligible for free or reduced meals can sign up to receive CACFP funding to cover meals. This after-school meal component of the bill is estimated to cost $750 million over 10 years, according to Crystal FitzSimons, director of school and out-of-school time programs at the Food Research and Action Center.
* There is $40 million in mandatory funding towards farm-to-school programs, which set up local school gardens and food from local farms as ingredient sources for school meals.
Reference:
- H.R. 5504 – Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act – House Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill – June 2010 [http://www.schoolnutrition.org/uploadedFiles/School_Nutrition/16_LegislativeAction/HR%205504.pdf?n=6104]
- S. 3307 – Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 – Senate Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill – March 2010 [ http://ag.senate.gov/Legislation/FULLCNB10.pdf ]
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