Committee on Education and Labor : U.S. House of Representatives

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Soaring Food Prices Are Making it Harder for Schools and Child Nutrition Programs to Provide Healthy Meals to Children, Witnesses Tell House Education Committee
New survey highlights the strain rising food costs will place on schools this fall

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

 

WASHINGTON, DC -- With Americans already feeling the strain of higher grocery costs, soaring food prices are making it more difficult for schools, child care programs, and summer food service programs to provide healthy, low-cost meals for children, witnesses told the House Education and Labor Committee today. Today’s hearing was the first held by Congress to examine how rising food costs are affecting U.S. child nutrition programs and the millions of families who rely on them.

According to preliminary results of a new survey unveiled by the School Nutrition Association at the hearing, to help cope with higher food costs in the coming year, 75 percent of school nutrition directors plan to increase school meal prices for students, and 62 percent plan to reduce staff. In addition, 69 percent of the survey’s respondents reported they will have to dip into their “rainy day funds” intended for capital improvement projects

“With today’s economy making it harder and harder for families to pay the bills, more children than ever are in need of healthy, nutritious, and inexpensive meals,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the committee. “It is deeply worrisome that climbing food costs, combined with stagnant federal support for child nutrition programs, may force schools and programs to offer less healthy options for kids, raise prices for school meals, or serve fewer children.”

Each year, nearly fifty million children are served by the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, the Child and Adult Care Program, and summer food service programs, which provide free meals and snacks to children in low-income communities over summer vacation.

Despite escalating foods costs, federal investments in child nutrition programs have not kept up – leaving programs to make up the difference. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the prices of basic essentials like bread, milk, and cheese increased by 17 percent in the past year alone. Yet during this same period, the federal reimbursement rate for child nutrition programs only rose by three to four percent. Aside from slight annual indexed adjustments, the reimbursement rate for the National School Lunch Program has remained stagnant for the past twenty years.

During today’s hearing, several witnesses urged Congress to increase the federal reimbursement rate and boost federal support for the nation’s child nutrition programs during the upcoming reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, which expires in 2009.

“You can only stretch the food dollar so far. As food costs continue to rise, we are challenged to do more with much less,” said Katie Wilson, the President-elect of the School Nutrition Association. “At the end of the day, however, what school nutrition directors are doing to lessen the impact of rising costs is still not enough.  Our programs need additional help in order to provide the highest quality, healthiest meals available to students each day.”

“Providing nutritious snacks for $0.68 cents or a healthy lunch for $2.98 is an enormous challenge in our area and elsewhere not close to the sources of food,” said James J. Hartnett, the President of the Family and Children’s Association in Mineola, New York, a nutrition program that provides meals to low-income children over the summer. “We would also love to serve our children fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat milk, but the current reimbursement rates for the afterschool and summer nutrition programs make that next to impossible.”

As the costs of food – especially healthier foods – rise, child nutrition programs play an even more crucial role in encouraging healthy eating habits among young children and reducing childhood obesity, explained Paula James, the Director of the Contra Costa Child Care Council in California.

“Nutrition problems start early,” James said. “Research has shown that these children are much more likely to be overweight as teenagers and that overweight teenagers are more likely to be overweight adults.  Many children are in care over eight hours each day and eat the majority of their meals at child care.  Child care plays a central role in providing healthy food and shaping the nutrition habits of young children.”

To see all of the testimonies from today’s hearing, click here.

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