School Lunch and WIC: We Have a Bill... Lots of Bills

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 00:53:43 AM PDT

• S. 3123: Growing Farm to School Programs Act of 2010, introduced by Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) with 13 cosponsors.
• S. 3124, to reduce the paperwork burden on child care sponsors and providers, introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) with 1 cosponsor.
• S. 3126, a bill to promote wellness policies by Sen. Klobuchar (D-MN) with no cosponsors.
• S. 3127 a bill to require continual updating of foods provided under WIC by Sen. Klobuchar (D-MN) with no cosponsors.
• S. 3128, a bill to make all foster children automatically eligible for free breakfast and lunch by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) with no cosponsors.
• S. 3129, a bill to change WIC so that once qualified, participants are in the program for a year before they must be re-certified by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand with no cosponsors.
• H.R. 4734 and S. 3040, a bill to improve summer meal programs by Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and Sen. Lugar (R-IN) with 1 cosponsor in the House and 4 in the Senate.
• H.R. 4710: Farm to School Improvements Act of 2010 by Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) with 17 cosponsors.
• H.R.4638: The Healthy Start Act, a bill to provide $.05 in federal commodities for school breakfasts by Rep. Herseth-Sandlin (D-SD) with 10 cosponsors.
• H.R.4148: The Hunger Free Schools Act, a bill to provide direct certification for free breakfast and lunch by Rep. David Loebsack (D-IA) with 21 cosponsors.
• H.R. 3705: Expand School Meals Act, a bill to expand the number of children eligible for free school meals by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) with 47 cosponsors. (It appears that this bill makes meals free for any children who are currently eligible for reduced cost meals.)
• H.R. 4402: The Nu­tri­tious Meals for Young Chil­dren Act and S.2749, a bill to improve access to food for young children in child care by Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand with 41 cosponsors in the House and 5 in the Senate.

What will probably happen is that most of these bills will die, and components of them will be folded into whichever bill ultimately becomes law. Lincoln's bill, which I don't think she's actually introduced yet (and the text of the bill is most certainly not available from the Library of Congress yet), has a darn good chance of ultimately becoming law. More on that below.

The big thing everyone's looking for in the bill is the change to the reimbursement rate (the amount the government spends per kid per school lunch). What will it be? $.20? $.35? More? Well, I don't think the news there will be good. The only mention the reimbursement rate got in any source I've found was a $.06 increase as an incentive for schools that provide healthy meals. And that would be wonderful IF it were on top of another, much larger increase in the rate for everybody. But is it? So far I can't find anything that says that it is.

The current rate is about $2.68 and only about $1 out of that actually goes for food. But food is not the only ingredient in a healthy lunch - labor, training, and equipment are necessary as well, and they cost money. If I understand correctly, the School Nutrition Association wants an extra $.35 and that's to help schools meet their current budget shortfalls for school lunches without even improving the quality of the food. School lunch reformer Ann Cooper says a $1 increase is necessary to actually make school food healthy. And Blanche is giving us $.06? Dear god, I hope not. Please let this be a misunderstanding.

The other news is that our good friend Blanche decided to give money to school lunches by taking money away from an area she feels isn't very important: conservation. Yes, that's right. The school lunch bill gets a total of $4.5 billion (with a B) in new money, and that's coming right out of the EQIP program. The silver lining is that the EQIP program, although it began as a true conservation program, often gives money to factory farms. So it's not exactly the best conservation program we've got, but when the money goes to small, responsible farms instead of factory farms, it is money well spent. Conservation programs are perennially underfunded and by all accounts, they work really well but they don't do enough because they don't have enough money. I'm all for school lunches, but can't we find somewhere else to get the money? How about outdated Cold War era weapons programs?

On the more positive side, George Miller, Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said the following about the Lincoln bill:

For millions of children, the meals they eat at school, in afterschool programs or child care are their nutritional safety net. Senator Lincoln and I both know we need to do everything we can to help all eligible children have access to healthy, safe and nutritious meals. Senator Lincoln's focus on improving access and nutrition quality rightfully address many of the concerns I often hear from parents, stakeholders and school leaders. I look forward to working with her as we continue our efforts to strengthen and improve child nutrition for kids across the country.

Miller's one of the good guys so if he likes Lincoln's bill, then it must have some good stuff in it. Of course, maybe he was just being polite.