Throughout this blog I have spoken a lot about asking representatives to support a bill that is currently being considered by one committee or another. But have you ever considered that you can impact policies before they are even made?
The United States Department of Agriculture is currently reviewing it's Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP). The purpose of FFVP is to provide children with a variety of fruits and vegetables as healthy snack options at participating schools.
With the help of Prevent Obesity I have written a letter to Tom Vilsack, Secretary to the USDA, to let him know I support FFVP and requesting that the review addresses a few key points.
Dear Secretary Vilsack,
I am writing to show my support of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable
Program and your effort to standardize it so that more children will
benefit. Having a program that teaches students about the importance of
eating fruits and vegetables by allowing them to try the produce helps
educate them about nutrition and helps kids’ lead healthier lives.
As you finalize your proposal, I ask that you include the following requirements:
1. States conduct outreach to schools serving the highest percentage of children eligible for free or reduced-price meals;
2. State agencies provide schools with the training and technical assistance necessary to operate the program efficiently;
3. Schools implement the program five days per week;
4. Schools incorporate nutrition education into the program; and
5. Schools use only fresh, fresh-cut, and nutritionally equivalent fruits and vegetables in the program.
To ensure that schools can reach the goal of serving nutritious
snacks as part of this program, it is also important that your agency
allow them to use a portion of their total funding for non-food
costs—such as the purchase or lease of kitchen equipment.
This program can and does help improve students’ dietary intake,
which in turn reduces their risk for obesity, diabetes, high blood
pressure and other serious chronic diseases. Healthier children do
better in school and we all benefit.
If you would like to let the USDA know you also support FFVP, you can do so here.
Pink slime, or lean finely-textured beef (LFTB) as it is referred to in the industry, has been a hot topic in the past few months in regards to school lunches. It is not that pink slime is a new concept - in fact Jamie Oliver spoke about it on Food Revolution a year ago today, and there is evidence that ammonia treating of beef and other mechanically separated meat, has been available to the public, and part of the food system for at least the past 20 years.
The topic is fairly complex, and honestly I do not know enough about it to post an informed opinion. However I feel that it is such a hot topic in school nutrition that I ought to mention the subject and at least direct you towards more information.
I will let Jamie Oliver explain what Pink Slime is (it should be noted that in his video, he is making a small, by hand batch of LFTB - and it turns out looking a lot like minced meat - when mechanically separated and treated, the product is visually more like pink soft serve ice cream in appearance than like minced meat).
The public attention LFTB has received in the last couple of months has mostly been due to Bettina Siegel, blogger at The Lunch Tray, starting a Change.org petition entitled Tell USDA to STOP Using Pink Slime in School Food! Bettina is more or less an expert on what is going on with LFTB and school lunches, as well school lunches in general, so if you would like to read more on the topic, I suggest heading over to The Lunch Tray
One of the bills I have been advocating for is Bill 110 - a provision that will allow school property in Kentucky to be made available for the community to use to be more physically active. A bill that would allow schools to open up their playgrounds to children on the weekends, or their halls to walking programs in the winter, without the worry of liabilities.
Before I even started this blog, I spoke to my Community Nutrition class about the importance of this piece of legislature.
The Obama administration is currently working to develop new guidelines for what is permissible in vending machines in public schools.Suggestions have been made that the healthy foods in vending machine guidelines may follow the plans already laid out by state regulations such as those governing schools in New York.
In New York, Education Law 915 prohibits
the sale of sweetened soda water, chewing gum, candies of various
sorts, water ices (except for those that contain fruit or fruit juices)
in public schools from the beginning of the school day until the end of
the last scheduled meal period.
Other states also have very specific vending machine regulations, including:
A few months ago I wrote Senator Rand Paul (among others) requesting they support continued funding of the National School Lunch Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children in bill HR 212. While this bill has since been and gone, today I received (a very belated) reply from Rand Paul.
Dear Ms. Pace,
Thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding the important issue of child nutrition.
On
Nov. 17, 2011, the President signed H.R. 2112, the Consolidated and
Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012 into public law (P.L.
112-55). This measure directs the amount of federal taxpayer dollars
that will be used to fund various mandatory food and nutrition programs
within the Department of Agriculture. For fiscal year 2012, the overall
funding level of $98.6 billion for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP) includes $18.2 billion for school lunch and school
breakfast programs and $6.6 billion for the Women, Infants, and Children
program.
While
the federal government is and continues to be a major provider of food
aid, our nation is in such a perilous financial situation that we must
continuously evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of these
programs. As we continue to battle the effects of the recent recession,
there will undoubtedly be many seeking to use these programs. We can
assist the truly needy, but with a national debt approaching $15
trillion and increasing structural deficits, we must be precise about
whom we decide to target with scarce federal resources. Because this
measure -- a massive spending bill that funds most of the federal
government -- only exacerbates our crushing national debt burden, and
because I believe that food aid can and should be administered by the
states and charitable organizations, I voted against H.R. 2112.
Again,
thank you for contacting my office. It is an honor and a privilege to
represent the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the United States Senate.
Please continue to inform me of any thoughts you may have on federal
legislative issues.
Sincerely,
Rand Paul, MD
United States Senator
What disturbs me the most about this letter, is that Rand Paul states "because I believe...". It is not a senators job to vote on a bill based on his personal feelings on the issue. It is his job to represent his constituents. Which makes me wonder... if there any point in advocating anything to this particular senator, if he is going to vote on bills based on his beliefs?
Today Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative turned two! This is one of my favorite Nutrition in Education related programs because finally someone who the world looks to, the FLOTUS no less, has said We Need To Do Something! The acknowledgement that we need to pay more attention to the health of our youth is awesome. The fact that Mrs. Obama is so passionate about it ia amazing. I love to imagine that when the Obama's climb into bed at night, or are eating a family meal with Malia and Sasha, they are talking about the importance of eating healthy and staying active.
Doesn't that warm you heart?
I hope you enjoy these clips from the first day of Michelle Obama's Let's Move 2nd Anniversary tour (I particularly liked the bit where she is doing The Robot with school children from Iowa)
Yesterday myself and 4 of the undergrads from the General Dietetics program briefly met with State Representative Rita Smart as part of Kentucky Dietetic Associations Day at the Capitol. Representative Smart is a great ally for Nutrition in Education, as her background is in Family and Consumer Sciences and before becoming a representative, she worked for many years as a Co-Operative Extension Agent.
While Representative Smart could only allocate a small portion of her day to meeting with myself and the other students (and this is often the case with Representatives and Senators while their committees are in session -
and should not discourage you from your advocacy efforts... your voice is being heard, even if briefly!), we were able to give her the big thumbs up and our solid support for a bill she has co-sponsored: HB 68.
House Bill 68 is a bill that promotes physical activity in elementary schools throughout Kentucky. The bill proposes that children in first through fifth grades, and kindergartners attending a full day should receive no less than 90 minutes per week
of physical activity, while children enrolled in half day kindergarten should receive a minimum of 45 minutes per week
of physical activity.
What a fantastic bill, right? Children need as many opportunities as they can to be physically active, especially at an elementary age when they are still developing their gross motor skills. Not to mention the wonder effects being active has on both a child's academics and their general classroom behavior.
During the KDA meeting, Senator Katie Stine spoke to the group (both dietitians and dietetic students alike) about other bills that effect the health of Kentuckians. Senator Stine is another passionate advocate for nutrition and physical activity and implores everyone to call the Legislative Hot Line at 1-800-372-7181 any time there is a health related bill to let your representatives know that you support it!
For the first time in 15 years, the nutritional standards for school lunch meals will be raised. Yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and First Lady Michelle Obama announced the new lunchtime standards These changes come as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.
Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy
Vilsack describes the changes as " historic opportunity to improve the quality and quantity of the school meal programs".
The new standards, which will go into affect in 2012-2013 acedemic year, are intended to improve the nutrient intake of the nearly 32million children who participate in the National School Lunch Program each school day. Highlights of the changes include:
Establish a caloric limit for meals
Establish a sodium limit for meals (this standard will have a 10 year implementation period).
Requiring schools provide students vegetables from the five vegetable subgroups each week.
Requiring schools make fruit available to students daily, and in larger portion sizes.
Requiring milk be low fat or fat free.
Requiring "whole grain" to be the first ingredient on all grain items. (This standard will have a 2 year implementation period).
Requiring that no food item served contains trans-fats.
In order to meet the costs of these stricter standards, schools will be reimbursed an additional 6 cents per meal.
Name: E Pace From: Eastern Kentucky University About me: This is a blog about Nutrition in Education: The awesome programs that already exist, and what we can do to makes things even better!
