WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey D-(Petaluma), the top Democrat on the U.S. House Education subcommittee that handles federal school nutrition programs, introduced bipartisan legislation with Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK); and Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) to require the U.S. Department of Agriculture to update its nutrition standards for foods sold on school grounds and ensure that all foods sold in schools during the school day meet those standards.

The “Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act” is supported by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the National PTA, the School Nutrition Association, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, and others.

“We need to help parents help their kids make sound, nutritious choices about their diet, ” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey.  “With child obesity a major public health epidemic, we must stop undermining efforts to promote good nutrition by updating decades old USDA nutrition standards.  Children spend much of their waking hours in class, so schools must be on the front line in reducing obesity and diet-related disease.”

The “Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act” would require that the Secretary of Agriculture update the definition of “foods of minimal nutritional value” and consider the positive and negative contributions of foods to children’s diets, the relationship between food and obesity and other chronic illnesses, and recommendations made by scientific organizations.

Rep. Woolsey is a leader in promoting school nutrition programs.  She enacted a national school breakfast pilot project and continues to fight for legislation that will improve school food options.  In the 108th Congress, she was a key player in the bipartisan reauthorization of the National School Lunch and Child Nutrition Acts and she authored H.R. 2987 with Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) that included grants to promote healthy school nutrition environments.  Woolsey also passed legislation encouraging local products to be included in school meals.   As part of her “Balancing Act” legislation, H.R.1589, to help working families balance work and family responsibilities, she has included a provision for universal school breakfast so that all of the nation’s children start the school day ready to learn.

The following are Woolsey’s words as written for the press conference in the U.S. Senate:

“I’m very pleased to be here with Representative Shays and Senators Harkin and Murkowski.  I also want to thank the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the many other organizations that support our efforts, including the National PTA and the School Nutrition Association.

“A bill that has bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate is a rare thing these days, but that’s what we have here.  Last year, the federal government invested nearly 10 billion dollars to help schools provide our nation’s schoolchildren with healthy breakfasts and lunches.  Those meals must meet sound federal nutrition standards.

“But current law prevents our country from receiving the return on that investment that is so critical to our future – a healthy generation of children and young adults.   The cost of continuing current law is immense – for example, in 2001, the Surgeon General estimated the direct and indirect costs of obesity in the United States at $117 billion.

“This bill recognizes that selling food of minimal nutritional value in schools not only undermines the federal investment in healthy meals, but undermines parents’ ability to ensure that their children eat well.

“So, very simply, what our bill would do is update the standards for foods sold outside the school meal programs – those standards are more than 30 years old, by the way – and ensure that all foods sold in schools during the school day meet sound nutrition standards.

"I believe that our children deserve nothing less.  Thank you.”