| Rep. George Miller just introduced a bipartisan child nutrition reauthorization bill at a press conference featuring TV Network's Rachael Ray. Within the "Beltway Bubble" of DC, everyone expected it to be a much better bill than the Senate bill introduced by Blanche Lincoln. And the bill has a lot of great things in it.
It improves food safety for school food in a much needed way. A GAO report found last year that when foods were recalled, the steps to remove those foods from school meals weren't necessarily being taken. So that's good.
It also improves access to free meals to eligible children by allowing direct certification - if a kid gets Medicaid or SCHIP, they automatically qualify for free meals. Also, in high poverty areas, all the kids get free meals no matter what. That's HUGE because there's often a stigma to getting free meals, and sometimes kids who are entitled to them won't actually eat them because they are afraid of being made fun of by peers. Where there's universal access to free meals in high poverty areas, all the kids will eat so nobody has to worry about being uncool.
Unfortunately, the the increase in the school lunch reimbursement rate - the amount spent per kid per meal - only goes up by 6 cents. That's the same as in the Senate bill. It's not enough to make the changes we need in school food. Activists have called for increases between $.35 and $1.00, and I tend to think the amount needed is closer to $1.00.
This is a great bill in many respects and Rep. Miller is a wonderful representative whose intentions I don't doubt at all. I know he wants to help kids and I know he wants to improve lunches. So why do we have so much money for bailouts and wars but only 6 cents for our kids? |
