Today, the House is expected to vote on the Agriculture Appropriations Conference Report which includes temporary extensions of expiring provisions of the laws governing the child nutrition programs resulting in a cost savings of $150 million. These savings will be reinvested to meet critical child nutrition needs across the country to ensure more children have year-round access to healthy and nutritious meals at school, in child care settings, and during the summer months.
Ensuring More Children Have Access to Healthy and Nutritious Meals
ENSURING IMPROVED ACCESS AND QUALITY OF MEALS FOR ALL CHILDREN
Children should not have to go hungry – and they should have access to nutritious foods that will help them thrive physically and academically. In this difficult economic climate, the federal child nutrition programs have an increasingly important role to play in providing children with healthy meals while at school, childcare, or during the summer months. Over 32 million children each year are served by these programs. For many children, these meals may be the only healthy foods they receive during the day.
Research shows that children who are hungry have a harder time paying attention and learning in the classroom. Low-income children are also at greater risk of going hungry or becoming overweight, during the summer months. Providing children with access to healthier, nutritious foods at school, child care, summer programs, or other educational settings is vital to our efforts to help all children learn, succeed and grow.
To ensure that children can continue to benefit from these programs and services, Congress will temporarily extend expiring provisions of the Child Nutrition Act until a more comprehensive reauthorization of the law occurs next year. This one-year temporary extension will generate a savings of $150 million, which will be reinvested to meet critical child nutrition needs across the country. These new investments will address President Obama’s and Congress’ priorities to end hunger and improve child nutrition, increase access to quality school meals, and build program capacity.
Ensuring More Children Have Access to Healthy and Nutritious Meals
ENSURING IMPROVED ACCESS AND QUALITY OF MEALS FOR ALL CHILDREN
Children should not have to go hungry – and they should have access to nutritious foods that will help them thrive physically and academically. In this difficult economic climate, the federal child nutrition programs have an increasingly important role to play in providing children with healthy meals while at school, childcare, or during the summer months. Over 32 million children each year are served by these programs. For many children, these meals may be the only healthy foods they receive during the day.
Research shows that children who are hungry have a harder time paying attention and learning in the classroom. Low-income children are also at greater risk of going hungry or becoming overweight, during the summer months. Providing children with access to healthier, nutritious foods at school, child care, summer programs, or other educational settings is vital to our efforts to help all children learn, succeed and grow.
To ensure that children can continue to benefit from these programs and services, Congress will temporarily extend expiring provisions of the Child Nutrition Act until a more comprehensive reauthorization of the law occurs next year. This one-year temporary extension will generate a savings of $150 million, which will be reinvested to meet critical child nutrition needs across the country. These new investments will address President Obama’s and Congress’ priorities to end hunger and improve child nutrition, increase access to quality school meals, and build program capacity.
Specifically, these new investments in child nutrition will:
Expand and Improve Access to Healthy and Nutritious Meals During The Summer
Pilot projects to improve access to the Summer Food Service Program - $85 million
Eliminate Barriers to the School Lunch Program to Ensure More Eligible Children Are Receiving Benefits
Funding to Improve Direct Certification Systems - $25 million
Help States to Purchase Necessary Equipment to Store, Prepare and Serve Healthy Foods
National School Lunch Program Equipment Assistance Grants - $25 million
Child Care Nutrition, Health and Outreach Grants - $8 million
Reward states that encourage low-income moms to breastfeed
WIC Breastfeeding Promotion Bonus Awards - $5 million
Expand and Improve Access to Healthy and Nutritious Meals During The Summer
Pilot projects to improve access to the Summer Food Service Program - $85 million
- Ensures fewer children go hungry over the summer by exploring alternative methods of delivering nutrition benefits to better meet the needs of low-income children and families in rural and urban settings that may not have access to meals provided through the Summer Food Service Program.
- Improves nutrition of low-income children during the summer months to promote healthy growth and development, so they can return to school ready to learn.
Eliminate Barriers to the School Lunch Program to Ensure More Eligible Children Are Receiving Benefits
Funding to Improve Direct Certification Systems - $25 million
- Increases the number of eligible children enrolled in the school lunch programs by improving direct certification systems through enhanced use of technology to streamline automatic enrollment of eligible children. Direct certification systems are a critical tool to ensure eligible children have access to the school meal programs and to improve program integrity. However, significant financial and technical barriers must still be overcome to automatically enroll more eligible children.
Help States to Purchase Necessary Equipment to Store, Prepare and Serve Healthy Foods
National School Lunch Program Equipment Assistance Grants - $25 million
- Improves the nutritional quality of school meals by providing grants to states to purchase foodservice equipment that will improve quality, efficiency, and food safety in the National School Lunch Program.
- Builds on investments included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to provide equipment assistance grants to improve schools’ foodservice infrastructure.
Child Care Nutrition, Health and Outreach Grants - $8 million
- Ensures more children in child care settings have access to nutritious and age-appropriate foods by providing grants to encourage states to develop state level policies, training and policy initiatives, and educational materials to improve nutrition and promote health in child care settings.
- Requires that states allocate at least half of the award to child care institutions to improve nutrition, physical activity, and health of children in their centers and homes.
Reward states that encourage low-income moms to breastfeed
WIC Breastfeeding Promotion Bonus Awards - $5 million
- Encourages recipient states to use funds to increase awareness though promotion campaigns, to produce materials to help encourage more mothers to breastfeed. Studies show breastfeeding provides significant benefits for infant health including increased immunity and lower risk for obesity.
- Increases the number of mothers in the WIC program who are fully or partially breastfeeding their infants by incentivizing states with one-time breastfeeding performance bonus awards.
