Child Nutrition

HIGHLIGHTS

Congress is set to renew our nation’s child nutrition programs, including school lunch and breakfast, by reauthorizing the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act. Among many improvements to the school meals programs, the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act updated the nutrition guidelines for school meals, making them healthier for our students.

The NEA strongly supports the nutrition guidelines of the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act. These guidelines have been under attack, and we expect that efforts to roll them back will continue this year.

Tell Congress to maintain these guidelines for the health and well-being of all students, particularly those for whom schools provide most of their meals. Also let them know that adequate training and equipment are necessary to help school food service professionals provide healthy meals.

Other NEA priorities in child nutrition reauthorization include ensuring that students from families with low-incomes also have access to meals in the summer months, and expanding the Farm to School program to expose students to healthy, locally sourced foods and enrichment activities.

Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act Becomes Law

The Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) of 2010, a reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, provides funding for federal school meal and child nutrition programs, increases access to healthy food, and promotes overall student wellness. By supporting school and community efforts that provide nutritious meals for children and promote overall wellness, the HHFKA is a major step forward in the fight to end childhood hunger, improve nutrition, and combat our country’s epidemic of obesity.

The HHFKA of 2010 includes $4.5 billion in new funding for its programs and provisions over a 10 year period. Here are some parts of the bill that may be important to NEA members:

The HHFKA will help end childhood hunger by:

Expanding after school meals for at-risk children
Expanding universal meal service through community eligibility
Connecting more eligible low-income children with school meals through expanding direct certification

The HHFKA will improve student health and reduce obesity by:

Establishing national nutrition standards for all foods sold in school during the school day, including a la carte lines and vending machines (note that the Act does not ban fundraisers such as bake sales, etc., held outside of the school day)
Strengthening local school wellness policies and school food safety programs
Developing model product specifications for USDA commodity foods used in school meals

The HHFKA will improve training and support the professionalism of food service employees by:

Requiring annual training and certification for all local food service personnel in procedures to ensure program compliance and integrity, and in nutrition, health and food safety standards and methods

Some parts of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act will go into effect for the 2011-2012 school year, but many provisions will not take effect until the 2012-2013 school year, or later. There are a number of areas in which regulations must be developed and adopted through a public rule-making process. During this implementation period the NEA will be working with all stakeholders to ensure that schools can succeed in meeting the CNA’s goals of reducing childhood hunger, promoting health, and reducing childhood obesity.