Results tagged “school lunches” from EdLabor Journal

Vicki B. Escarra, President and CEO of Feeding America, has a post at Huffington Post about why the House Child Nutrition Bill is Better for Children.

She said:

The House Education and Labor Committee approved a strong bill in July, the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act of 2010 (H.R.5504). This bill includes many of the same improvements to nutritional quality as the Senate bill but does far more to invest in increased program access. The House bill would significantly increase access to food at breakfast, after-school, on weekends, and during the summer. Children need access to food every day, before, during, and after school, and the House provides much-needed improvements to address these gap periods.

The Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010 pays particular attention to increasing access because hunger doesn't take a summer vacation or stop at the end of the school day.

Specifically, the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act improves access to school meal programs by:

• Increasing the number of eligible children enrolled in the school lunch programs by using Medicaid/SCHIP data to directly certify children who meet income requirements without requiring individual applications and requiring states to establish and execute a plan to increase rates of direct certification.
• Providing enhanced universal meal access for eligible children in high poverty communities by eliminating paper applications and using census data to determine school wide income eligibility.
• Increasing children’s access to healthy school breakfasts by providing competitive grants to school districts to start up or improve their program.

It also improves access to out of school meal programs by:

• Ensuring fewer children go hungry year round by providing meals for over 225,000 children through seamless meal service for children in school based and community based summer and after-school programs, and in low income rural areas. 
• Improving access for children in home-based child care by reducing administrative costs for sponsors of child care meal programs.

Learn more about the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010.

As schools return from their summer break, many students will again have their only chance at a healthy meal all day. And those meals are key according to a new report by Georgetown University Assistant Professor of Public Policy Peter Hinrichs. 

According to the Associated Press, Mr. Hinrichs said:

"The research found that the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) has not had a dramatic effect on health into adulthood, but it has had a significant effect on educational attainment," Hinrichs said. "The NSLP today is still broad in its reach, but it targets poorer children. There are higher standards for eligibility and also special funding for poorer schools. Had these elements been in place at the inception of the program, there may have been a more detectable effect on health in its early years."

That is why under H.R. 5504, the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010, the program increases the number of eligible children enrolled in the school lunch programs by using Medicaid/SCHIP data to directly certify children who meet income requirements without requiring individual applications and requiring states to establish and execute a plan to increase rates of direct certification. It also provides enhanced universal meal access for eligible children in high poverty communities by eliminating paper applications and using census data to determine school wide income eligibility. The more eligible students who are having a regular, nutritious lunch the more students will be performing in the classroom.

The bill passed out of committee and is awaiting a vote on the House floor. 

Learn more about H.R. 5504, the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act of 2010.

The AP has a story this morning about how fewer hungry children are getting free summer meals.

Mary Clare Jalonick reports:

Hungry children looking for a free meal this summer may not be able to find one.

States and cities have cut funding for summer meal programs as need has skyrocketed, according to a new report from an anti-hunger group that tracked the program in 2009. Budget woes that have left many families hungry are also affecting local governments that find themselves without the needed dollars to feed children while they are out of school.

"Low-income children across the country clearly bore the brunt of budget cuts," said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, which compiled the report to be released Tuesday.

Summer nutrition programs aim to feed children who get most of their nutrition — or sometimes their only real meal of the day — at school. The food research group measures the effectiveness of those summer programs by comparing the number of low-income children receiving meals during the summer with those receiving free and reduced-price school meals during the school year.

One reason why Chairman Miller is pushing so hard for the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010 is because children shouldn't go hungry. This bill would, among other things, improve access to out of school meal programs by ensuring fewer children go hungry year round by providing meals for over 225,000 children through seamless meal service for children in school based and community based summer and after-school programs, and in low income rural areas. It will also improve access for children in home-based child care by reducing administrative costs for sponsors of child care meal programs.

The Committee will hold a hearing on H.R.5504, Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act on Thursday at 9:15 ET. We invite you to watch via our live webcast.

Earlier today, daytime talk show host and author, Rachael Ray joined a bipartisan group of Members of Congress to speak about the importance of the new Improving Nutrition for America’s Children. The legislation, which reauthorizes the Child Nutrition Act, will dramatically improve the quality of meals children eat both in and out of school and in child care settings, support community efforts to reduce childhood hunger and, for the first time, establish nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools.  Nationally, one-third of children are either overweight or at risk of becoming overweight.

“We are on the brink of a national crisis with our children’s health. The barriers that prevent children from accessing quality meals mean more children are at risk of obesity and poor nutrition and this has serious implications for the health and well-being of the future of this country,” said Miller. “This legislation creates a nutritional safety net for millions of children who rely on the child nutrition programs by meeting children’s nutritional needs at every step along the way -- in school, on the weekends and during the summer. Child hunger doesn’t take a summer vacation”

Learn more about the Improving Nutrition for America's Children.

Watch Chairman Miller's statement.



Watch Rachael Ray express her support for this bill.



To view additional excerpts of the press conference visit the Education and Labor YouTube page.

Photos of the event are below the fold.

Chairman Miller met with celebrity chef Rachael Ray yesterday to discuss the upcoming reauthorization of the child nutrition laws. Child nutrition reauthorization is a top priority for Chairman Miller and he plans a full reauthorization this year. He is committed to increasing children’s access to the healthy foods, improving nutrition quality, and to make it easier for schools and community based organizations to provide the nutrition programs that children need.

Take a peek behind the scenes at their meeting:

Fitness expert Richard Simmons teamed up with U.S. Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI), Zach Wamp (R-TN), George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, and representatives from the American Heart Association, Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association, and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education to celebrate the passage of the Fitness Integrated with Teaching (FIT) Kids Act at a press conference Thursday, April 22 at 11:00 a.m. at the House Triangle.

CNN has video of some of Richard Simmon's comments.

The FIT Kids Act, which passed the House of Representatives on April 21, 2010, renews the emphasis on physical education in schools.  The Act would work to ensure kids are active during the school day and are taught to be personally responsible for their health.  As a leading advocate for passage of the FIT Kids Act, Simmons spoke about his findings from the 200 days he spends on the road each year, visiting schools and communities across the country.

The USA Today ran a story yesterday about the increasing demand for school lunches during this economic downturn.

Nearly 20 million children now receive free or reduced-price lunches in the nation's schools, an all-time high, federal data show, and many school districts are struggling to cover their share of the meals' rising costs.

Through February, nationwide enrollment in free school lunch programs was up 6.3% over the same time last year, to 16.5 million students, based on data from the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), which subsidizes the programs. Participation in reduced-price lunch programs rose to 3.2 million students, the data show.

...

Preliminary school lunch data for March suggest that February's record demand may be dipping slightly. Still, Congress should give "serious consideration" to boosting the federal subsidy during the reauthorization this fall of the Child Nutrition Act, says Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee. "For millions of children, this is the nutritional safety net."

This increased demand and other issues related to child nutrition were raised at the hearing regarding improving child nutrition programs to reduce childhood obesity on May 14, 2009.