School Lunch Bill Passes House Committee, Includes Organic and Vegan Pilot Programs

statement from Dave Loebsack (D, IA-02) (4.00 / 2)

I got this from his press secretary:

Congressman Dave Loebsack's Bills Included in Child Nutrition Reauthorization

WASHINGTON DC - Today, the House Education and Labor Committee passed the bipartisan Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act, H.R. 5504 to expand access and improve the nutritional quality of meals in schools and child care. Congressman Dave Loebsack's legislation, the Hunger Free Schools Act and the Healthy Foods for Healthy Schools Act, were included in the bill. In addition, Loebsack joined Congresswoman Davis in passing an amendment to the bill that will ensure children of military families can more easily access the school lunch and breakfast programs.

The bill will now move to the House floor for a full vote. Below is Loebsack's opening statement, as prepared for the record.

First, I want to thank the Chairman, the Committee staff, and Committee Members for their hard work on putting together and introducing a good bill that will take great steps to help reduce childhood hunger and decrease obesity rates for our children through the child nutrition programs and other child care programs.

This bill is an important step forward as we work to improve child nutrition in this country. I grew up in poverty and know how hard it is to access healthy foods when your family is struggling just to get by. It's difficult to prioritize healthy food at home when you can barely afford to keep the heat on, this is why continuously improving school meals is so important as often they are the only opportunities for some children get a square meal for the day.

It is critical that we help schools have access to healthy foods, streamline programs to make them more efficient for schools to administer and for children to take part in them.  It is also critical that we work in a bipartisan manner to make it easier for schools to provide good meals for our children during normal school hours and in childcare settings.

Improvements to our child nutrition programs will have far-reaching benefits in many respects. Ensuring more children have access to school meal programs and improving the quality of these programs helps reduce the number of children that go hungry every day, can reduce childhood obesity rates, and can also improve learning, concentration, and participation in school activities.

Important also for the long-run is the potential for improvements in child nutrition to reduce our nation's long-term healthcare costs. Reducing the incidences of childhood obesity will reduce the occurrences of childhood and even adult illnesses and chronic diseases such as diabetes. Improvements in child nutrition will also help improve our military readiness in the long-run.

Throughout this process, I am grateful I was able to spend time gathering input on improving child nutrition programs from Iowa teachers, administrators, and students along with Iowa and national nutrition advocacy organizations. I am particularly pleased I was able to work with the Committee to include nearly all of the important provisions from the two pieces of legislation I had previously introduced, the Hunger Free Schools Act, H.R. 4148, and the Healthy Food for Healthy Food for Healthy Schools Act, H.R. 4607.

Specifically, included from my Hunger Free Schools Act, this legislation will help provide millions of children with improved and expanded access to child nutrition programs through expansion and improvement of direct certification and through different types of universal meal programs. It will also reward states that are directly certifying a high number of children and that are making improvements while also reducing costs and improving efficiency overall for schools administering school meal programs.

Included from my Healthy Food for Healthy Schools Act, this bill provides assistance to state agencies, local educational agencies, and school food authorities to more easily purchase and process healthy foods for school meals. It will also provide them with more information on best practices to help make school meals healthier.

This legislation in my opinion is a crucial piece to our long-term competitiveness as a nation. Far too often, our children are unable to access quality, affordable, and nutritious meals and it is time for us to work together to provide our children with meals that make them strong and healthy and improve these vital programs for the long-term.

I want to thank the Chairman and Committee again for all their work on this legislation and for making this bill a priority to move forward. I look forward to working further with our colleagues in the House and Senate to produce a bi-partisan bill that can be signed in to law this year and makes significant progress toward ending childhood hunger, improving nutrition, and reducing obesity for our nation's children.

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by: desmoinesdem @ Thu Jul 15, 2010 at 23:14:27 PM CDT

It's a start (4.00 / 2)

and I'm so glad farm to school programs got some much needed funds!

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by: Ellinorianne @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 22:32:26 PM CDT