Last week, Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) introduced the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (formerly known as the Child Nutrition Act), which proposes a $4.5 billion increase over the next 10 years for school lunches and other nutrition programs. This is less than half of $1 billion per year suggested by President Obama at the end of February, but it is still a large increase. The legislation aims to make school meals healthier and available to more children who need it.
The real question is: will the legislation work and is it necessary to invest more money in the school lunch program?
Before answering, consider this: Currently, schools only have about $1 per child to spend on buying actual ingredients.
This is not much money, and schools are struggling to produce fresh meals from good ingredients for just a buck. In fact, last December, USA Today found that fast food meat was safer than school lunch meat provided by the USDA! In other words, beef from Jack in the Box is better than a hamburger served in a school cafeteria! Jack in the Box sets higher limits (10x stricter than USDA’s) for amount of certain bacteria allowed in their burgers. Companies like McDonald’s, Burger King and Costco check ground beef for bacteria 5 to 10 times more often than the USDA does.
Want to know something even more shocking? Meat that KFC won’t buy because it’s from old birds, or “spent hens,” that would usually go into compost or pet food is…being put on kid’s lunch trays. There were quality issues with this chicken meat, but it is being fed daily to the 31 million students who participate in the National School Lunch Program.
Oh, and don’t forget that french fries are considered a vegetable according to school lunch guidelines.
Fortunately, after much understandable outrage, the USDA announced reforms to ensure safety and quality of school food. In February, the USDA said that it would tighten requirements on companies supplying ground beef, test beef more often and improve communications within the USDA to identify food safety issues.
If we as a country know that childhood obesity is a public health crisis, why is the taxpayer’s money being used to feed today’s children the lowest quality, over-processed, and unhealthy foods?
What do you think we can do to help?
“Hungry” to know more? Sites Earth Fare visited for this post:
(1) Lincoln Unveils Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act
(2) National School Lunch Program
(3) “US Senator seeks junk food ban, school lunch boost” (Reuters)
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by EarthFareCHAR: What’s worse? The fast food or cafeteria food that your kids are consuming. http://tinyurl.com/ybcvu42…
uberVU - social comments
March 24th, 2010 at 10:41 ampermalink
I would love to see stores and providers of healthful food step up to offer alternatives and educate school age kids about healthy and delicious food. I would love to see parents get educated as well and send their kids with real food for lunch instead of just shrugging it off and deciding school lunches are fine and besides, they’re so much easier, and maybe free, and worth every penny…
If anyone out there is interested in starting an educational campaign in the Asheville schools, maybe with some hands-on cooking demonstrations, or anyone would be able to contribute real food to such a project, please contact me tinkonthebrink@gmail.com.
I can cook and I can speak. I don’t have the resources to take this on alone, but if you have any connections or insights, please let me know!
jeannie lindsay
March 25th, 2010 at 12:01 pmpermalink
I’m appalled that chicken KFC rejects would go to the schools. Outrageous!
Dawn
March 28th, 2010 at 8:38 ampermalink
Not only is the food worse for you nutritionally, it also tastes horrible, if my years in public school are any indication. I think schools should put that money for fresh vegetables into a CSA so they can go get bulk vegetables once a week from a local farm. I get the feeling if schools skip the middle man they will be able to get a better deal, financially and nutritionally, all while supporting local agriculture.
Science
March 28th, 2010 at 6:23 pmpermalink
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!
cna training
March 29th, 2010 at 9:50 pmpermalink
This is great information. My hope is that one day the government will support our growers to the extent that it does not actually cost more to provide heathy food in our schools and homes.
Cathy
April 1st, 2010 at 7:47 ampermalink
At least NC is a rather sparkling example with regards to local produce… Earth Fare being based there, it wouldn’t hurt to give praise where it is due, and a LOT of praise should go to some folks in Raleigh getting local farm foods to NC kids… Pity that cotton and peanuts in the deep south, soy, alfalfa, and corn for cattle feed through the midwest, and potatoes and hops for booze in the west are the cash crops instead of what NC (partly because Native Americans instilled huge crop rotation values there!!) has been doing right for ages while other places rely on Mexico and California to provide cheap eats…
laura
April 1st, 2010 at 8:35 ampermalink
I agree, supporting local growers betters the local economy, so everyone gets benefits. And speaking as a mom who makes practically everything from scratch, I’ll be the first to say that healthy eating isn’t more expensive–it just takes more time. And the health benefits that we’ve received from eating healthier, homemade foods are definitely worth the extra time.
Rachel
April 1st, 2010 at 10:37 ampermalink
I just moved to Augusta, Georgia. I spent the day at school with my first grader and we had lunch in the cafeteria. It was Pizza Day. Let me say that we only let our kids buy lunch about once a month, the rest of the time we pack our own. Well, I was shocked and appalled by what I saw that day. The pizza did not look like real food and the cafeteria adults were walking around with large bottles of ranch dressing to put on the kids’ pizza! Some of the kids were simply eating the dressing with a spoon. That was the last time our kids bought lunch.
b
April 1st, 2010 at 2:27 pmpermalink
Wow!! What a story! That is so crazy and sad.
earthfare
April 1st, 2010 at 4:42 pmpermalink
I’d love to see some simple agriculture being taught at schools with the kids being able to ‘eat’ their hard work. Every school should have a garden with all the classes helping to tend it. What a shift in thinking it would create for the future of our planet if every school and home had a garden and people could trade cucumbers for peppers!
Anne-Marie
April 1st, 2010 at 5:34 pmpermalink
I am a school cafeteria manager, we are one of 8 north ga counties that have upgraded our menus based on fresh fruits and veg. choices and high fiber, low carb, low fat foods, we strive to serve high quality foods and it irritates me greatly that school food is often made fun of or accused of being of poor quality. Our foods comes from the same venders that supply high quality eating establishments. Our counties have been visited by several USDA Reps to study our menus and recipes, I have personally worked the last 6 years developing homemade healthy recipes and students have gradually started taking “from scratch” healtier choices (salad bars, fresh fruits, veggies), I personally attend parent/school events to educate parents on the work we are doing in our schools and meet with students to see what they like and dislike as far as “home gardens” teachers have started one but due to health regulations, I can’t serve any foods that have not come from inspected and approved food sources, so before commenting negatively on school foods, please contact your reps in the gov. to increase funding for healthier foods in school so children across the Country can have access to healthier food choices and make schools adopt a “healthier” menu and recipes. I am seeing more and more students trying to pay for lunch with pennies, nickels and dimes and my staff keep change in their aprons and gladly give change to a child that needs to eat, so please don’t lump all of us in a negative light, alot of us are trying really hard to make positive changes,
elaine
April 2nd, 2010 at 6:17 ampermalink
Elaine, thank you for sharing your comment and experiences. We were definitely not trying to lump ALL school meals into the negative light. In fact, we actually believe school cafeteria managers like yourself work very hard with the very small budget to feed all our kids. You are doing the most incredible and important work right on the front lines. Rather than pointing fingers at anyone, we wanted to raise the point that school meals CAN be better and we must help those who work in the system to get more funding so that kids do have better options. We are amazed at what you are accomplishing. You truly are a model and we are glad you shared your comment and experience here. Please continue what you are doing to ensure our kids are receiving healthy meals in schools. We realize some schools and individuals are working very hard to do this, so we are glad you shared your comments. Kudos to you and your efforts! Please let us know if we can help.
earthfare
April 2nd, 2010 at 10:56 ampermalink
And it would teach kids where their food comes from! Isn’t it amazing that many kids do not know what a tomato or cauliflower is? And, no fault of their own…it’s time we all looked at food differently!
earthfare
April 2nd, 2010 at 11:03 ampermalink
Rachel, thanks for sharing your experiences — eating healthier does take more time but it is worth it! And, we should take more time to enjoy our food
earthfare
April 2nd, 2010 at 12:20 pmpermalink
Thanks for everyone’s input! My organization, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP), works with school systems so that children will have access to fresh, local food in the cafeteria. We commend the Child Nutrition Directors across our region who purchase fresh food from local farms. But serving healthy food in schools is only half the battle; you have to get kids to EAT the healthy food. We believe that fostering positive experiences with healthy food, through initiatives like cooking with kids in the classroom, will lead children to develop lifelong healthy eating habits. ASAP provides local food cooking demos for schools in WNC. We come to the class prepared with a volunteer chef, food, and all of the supplies. We also have resources available for school gardens and farm field trips. For more information, you can contact me at brook@asapconnections.org or 828-236-1282.
To learn more about our Farm to School program, go to http://www.growing-minds.org.
Brook
April 6th, 2010 at 8:35 ampermalink
This Keydrum Smith, yall lunch look nasty. And the school looks lame. I will holla at ya later homies
ha ha ha God bless
keydrum smith
May 4th, 2010 at 2:16 pmpermalink