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George Miller 
Thu Jul 15, 2010 at 18:56:57 PM PDT
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Today, the House Education and Labor committee passed its bipartisan Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill by a vote of 32-13. For those who are keeping score, there were three Republicans who voted for it.
Some of the biggest news for me are two great new pilot programs established with amendments added yesterday. First, there is an organic foods pilot program that provides $10 million per year between 2011 and 2015 to selected schools with high low-income populations. That was proposed by Lynn Woolsey and Dennis Kucinich and it passed by a roll call vote. My hunch is that the funding is discretionary, which means that the Appropriations committee gets to decide whether to fund the program or not. I'm trying to find the roll call vote to see who voted or and against this but I don't think it's online yet.
Second, Jared Polis proposed a vegan (plant-based) foods pilot program, which passed in a voice vote. Some schools will participate in a program offering kids "plant based protein" (a.k.a. whole grains, nuts, beans, and veggies) and then they will evaluate which foods are superior in cost-effectiveness, marketability to school food authorities, ease of preparation and use, and acceptance by the kids. Yay! Awesome!
Last but hardly least, the bill includes $50 million in funding for Farm to School grants.
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Wed Jul 14, 2010 at 09:10:40 AM PDT
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The House Education and Labor committee will mark up and most likely pass the school lunch bill today. The markup is scheduled for 2pm Eastern Time and you can view it live here. Once they've passed the bill out of committee, the next step will be the House floor.
UPDATE: The markup will be live-tweeted @edlabordems using the hash-tag #CNR (which stands for Child Nutrition Reauthorization)
UPDATE: The markup will finish today but the vote might be tomorrow.
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Fri Jul 02, 2010 at 12:42:42 PM PDT
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Yesterday, the House Education and Labor committee held a hearing on school lunch. You can read about the first half here. The second half of the school lunch hearing featured a panel with many speakers:
Tom Colicchio, Chef and Restaurateur
Major General Paul D. Monroe, U.S. Army (Ret.), Executive Advisory Council Mission: Readiness
Dr. Eduardo J. Sanchez, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas
James D. Weill, President Food Research & Action Center (FRAC)
Robert Rector, Senior Research Fellow
Welfare and Family Issues The Heritage Foundation
Details below. Also, you can see a press release on the hearing or a blog post by Rep. Woolsey for more info.
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Thu Jul 01, 2010 at 18:17:38 PM PDT
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Today the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on school lunch and child nutrition. The big news for me from the first half of the hearing is that Rep. Kucinich has an absolutely BRILLIANT idea to pay for healthy school lunch and Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is an idiot.
Below is my write-up of the first half of this hearing. I'll soon post a diary on the second half.
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Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 18:12:02 PM PDT
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One of my favorite comedians just became one of my favorite activists! Sarah Silverman wrote the following to Rep. George Miller:
"I'm writing to you about something that has shocked and offended me. And trust me when I say it takes a lot to shock and offend me. Some of the foods we're feeding kids in schools are repulsive - and that unhealthy food is feeding the childhood obesity epidemic.
"All kids - vegetarian or not - should have healthy options. I think that we forget the simple fact that what we put in our bodies directly affects our bodies. Many kids aren't able to bring lunches from home - they have to eat what's in the lunch line. Without healthful options in the caf eteria, we're doing our children and the future of our country a great disservice.
She continues:
If we help children develop healthy habits early on, they'll have a lower risk of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes in the future. And that would mean lower health care costs. See? Only good comes from this. I know you're as serious as I am about helping kids succeed and stay healthy.
Yes, Rep. Miller, believer her when she says it takes a lot to offend her. This is a girl who made herself famous with a comedy routine that begins: "I was licking jelly off of my boyfriend's penis and all of a sudden I'm thinking, 'Oh My God, I'm turning into my mother!'" If Sarah Silverman's offended by the quality of school lunch, it must be time to do something about it.
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Thu Jun 10, 2010 at 09:07:32 AM PDT
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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?
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Tue Mar 02, 2010 at 20:44:24 PM PST
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Today, the House Education & Labor held a hearing on child nutrition before the full committee. You can see the entire hearing on an archived webcast here. The biggest take away I got from the hearing was the idea that when a school has a certain percent of kids who qualify for free or reduced cost lunch, it's cheaper to just give every kid in the school free food instead of paying for the administration and paperwork required to certify each kid who qualifies for the lunch. Sure, some kids will get food who don't qualify, but the school saves money overall while also making sure that everyone who needs to gets fed. Additionally, when every kid gets free food, then no kid has to deal with the stigma of receiving a handout because he or she is poor.
I've written up a summary of the hearing's content below.
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