ALL of the things this bill will do! :)

What Does it Do?

Improves Nutrition and Focuses on Reducing Childhood Obesity

• Gives USDA the authority to set nutritional standards for all foods regularly sold in schools during the school day. 
• Provides additional funding to schools that meet updated nutritional standards for federally subsidized lunches. 
• Helps communities establish local farm to school networks, create school gardens and ensures that mold local foods are used in the school setting.
• Builds on USDA work to improve nutritional quality of commodity foods that schools receive from USDA and use in their breakfast and lunch programs.
• Expands access to drinking water in schools, particularly during meal times. 
• Sets basic standards for school wellness policies including goals for nutrition promotion and education and physical activity, while still permitting local flexibility to tailor the policies to their particular needs. 
• Promotes nutrition and wellness in child cares settings through the federally-subsidized Child and Adult Care Food Program. 
• Expands support for breastfeeding through the WIC program. 

Increases access

• Increases the number of eligible children enrolled in school meal programs by approximately 115,000 students by using Medicaid data to directly certify children who meet income requirements. 
• Helps certify an average additional 4,500 students/year to receive school meals by setting benchmarks for states to improve the certification process. 
• Allows more universal meal access for eligible students in high poverty communities by eliminating paper applications and using census data to determine school-wide income eligibility.
• Expands USDA authority to support meals served to at-risk children in afterschool programs.

Increases program monitoring and integrity

• Requires school districts to be audited every three years to improve compliance with nutritional standards. 
• Requires schools to make information more readily available to parents about the nutritional qualities of meals. 
• Includes provisions to ensure the safety of school foods like improving recall procedures and extending hazard analysis and food safety requirements for school meals throughout the campus.
• Provides training and technical assistance for school food service providers.

Through this whole process I was constantly learning new things about this bill. This summary I was provided via Robert Kramer at Ben Chandler's office in Washington DC made the bill a lot clearer to me! Hope it helps you!

Rules and Regulations

I had posted earlier about a new rule regarding the incorporation of locally grown, unprocessed foods into the students diets. According to USDA Under Secretary Kevin Concannon, “This rule is an important milestone that will help ensure that our children have access to fresh produce and other agricultural products." 


I found the rules and regulations which were posted in the Federal Register. You can find the 6-page rule at the link below: 

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2011/pdf/2011-9843.pdf

Water Accessibility is an Issue?

As dietetic students we are aware that the majority of fluids consumed by the American population contain excess sugar and additives. However, I never thought that the consumption of these beverages would impact children's water intake. As part of the new act that I wasn't aware of, schools are required to make clean water accessible in student eating areas.

Vista Middle School outside Los Angeles has approximately 1,700 students and four water fountains in the student eating area.
It's still to be decided if a school with those numbers -- 1,700 students, four water fountains and a 30-minute mealtime -- satisfies the new legislation.

The USDA is working with schools and committees to develop new ways to implement this part of the new legislation.

The UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion, a CDC-funded prevention research program, has been test-driving a way to get children drinking more water at mealtime to help combat America's obesity epidemic. It's called a water intervention -- a five-week research program that includes a water filter and cups for five schools in the Los Angeles school district, provided free from the UCLA/RAND project.
The test includes these steps: Install a water filter in the school. Fill five-gallon jugs. Chill jugs overnight. Place in the eating area during mealtime. Serve with cups. The results will not be published until next year, but anecdotally, the program is a success, researchers say."We've seen students really gravitate towards the water out here and fill up their cups right before and after lunch to hydrate" says Burt Cowgill, the project manager. "The water is very popular and we have a lot of participation."

$$$

The biggest concern in recent news seems to be the increase in lunch prices through the National School Lunch Program. The average lunch rate will increase 5 cents in order to receive federal reimbursements. All schools participating the lunch and breakfast program will have to meet this criteria under the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act and reauthorization bill.

I understand this is a huge concern for school districts but have they really thought about what the kids are receiving in return? HEALTHY FOOD! Of course everything reverts back to the almighty dollar. 

Healthy Recipe Competition Among Kids

Apparently, First Lady Obama is hosting a competition called Recipes for Healthy Kids! This competition was kick started last September as a way for schools to come together to develop easy and healthy recipes that could be incorporated into the school lunch schedule! This activity is inspiring! The competition allows for kids to get involved and make the changes they will be seeing in the future. It can provide positive outlooks for them making changes to their own lives.

The judging round for the 15 semi finalist schools will begin soon and the categories include whole wheat grains, dark green and orange vegetables and dry beans and peas.

I feel like it is vital to get the kids involved to make a lasting impact. This competition does just that and I hope the kids lifestyle choices will be changed for the better!

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2011/04/0179.xml&contentidonly=true

Increasing prices!

With the passing of the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, the biggest concern for school districts are the increasing costs for food and school lunches. In an article posted online to the Quad-City Times many cafeterias are concerned with how they are going to pay for the healthier options. Many students buy items such as cookies, chips, sodas and french fries as part of their lunch options. However, schools are now making it a requirement that students chose the healthier options over the unhealthy options. According to the article, "Schools also will have to require students to take more vegetables and fruits on their plates at meals, even if they walk straight out of the checkout line and dump them in the trash. That's a big concern, and it doesn't just affect students' health. It also hurts their schools' food service budgets."Food costs are expected to increase by 8 cents to 23.5 cents a meal, but the federal government plans to reimburse that expense by just 6 cents a meal for the 11,765 lunches served per day.

I feel like many school districts are concerned with the increase in price. However, the difference in what is offered after the HHFKA and what was before will make a huge impact on the choices students make. What is the funniest part about the differences in food is half of the students won't even realize the difference. One school district in the article  has been offering whole wheat bread and hoagies for a year now just to see if students would notice! Also the price of wheat versus white isn't that big (11cents vs 9 cents).

The entire article is posted below:

http://qctimes.com/news/local/article_14c1e894-73a2-11e0-929c-001cc4c002e0.html

Interesting website!

I was messing around earlier today looking for some recent information and this website popped up on google!

http://www.insidetheschool.com/online-seminars/practical-ways-to-implement-the-healthy-hunger-free-kids-act/

It's a good resource for educators on tips for implementing the new act.

After the presentation Practical Ways to Implement the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act participants will be able to:

• Understand the new Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act and the history of child nutrition law
• Identify the steps for enforcement of the new act
• Recognize the importance of a school wellness committee and a district-wide wellness policy
• Identify potential obstacles to implementing the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act and ways to overcome the roadblocks
• Identify new opportunities for improved health, wellness, and academic achievement for students
• Identify opportunities and benefits of the new law

Vending Machine Changes!

Not only did the bill give the USDA authority to make changes to the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program but the USDA can also make changes to the choices available in vending machines at schools! I found a news article from St. Louis which stated

"Now the new machine at Burroughs offers yogurt and pita chips, and more of its kind could be on the way to replace the older models. The move comes as more schools, hospitals, malls and health clubs make room for more vending machines that provide healthful foods, turning the idea of machine-based eating from an act of desperation into something a little more measured."

This is exciting that the St. Louis schools are taking the initiative to offer healthier choices. Their vending machines used to offer the usual, soda and candy. Making these changes in the school system will hopefully influence the children to make healthier choices outside of the school. 

You can see the entire article here: 

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/article_a6c055d1-0e34-5ea7-8cc5-beedebcf8116.html

New rules implemented!

Read in the news today that new rules concerning the use if locally grown crops and support of local agriculture will effect the school lunch program! This is a huge progress! Many schools have been fighting to use the Farm to School program for years now! According to the news article The Farm to School component of this effort is designed to help connect schools with regional or local farms in order to serve healthy meals using locally-sourced products in their cafeterias. USDA currently is sending teams out to select school districts to work on farm to school issues. Some of these programs also incorporate nutrition-based studies, as well as food-learning opportunities such as farm visits, gardening, cooking, and composting activities.

Hope this initiative helps improve the nutrition of the school lunch and breakfast programs!

Sample Menu

When I went to Washington DC and met with Robert Kramer, he went out of his way to supply me with information on the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act and the National School Lunch Program.

One interesting piece of information was a sample menu to show the differences that would be implemented in the food choices after the act went into effect. Significant changes you can see at first glance include changes to whole wheat grains, lean meats, low-fat dairy products and raw fruits and vegetables. Before the act, a lot of the meals consisted of energy dense foods (lots of calories) such as hot dogs, pizza sticks, breaded beef patty and cheese pizza for the second day in one week!

This Child Reauthorization Act and the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act is providing healthier, nutrient dense foods rather than the previous energy-dense foods. 

Money allocated to Kentucky through the HHFKA

When I met with the legislative aid to Ben Chandler in Washington DC he provided me with an interesting document. In this document there is a listing of money allocated to every state from the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, and the total National School Lunch Program from 2009.

In Kentucky:

• 570,758 students participated in the NSLP in 2009
• Kentucky is receiving $5,394,000 in funding from the HHFKA to improve school lunches

Hopefully this funding will help make the school lunches healthier for the students! We can only hope! 

Nutritional Quality of the Diets of US Public School Children and the Role of the School Meal Programs

I found this interesting research article from the American Dietetic Association from 2009. I was shocked by the statistics that were provided in the article. According to the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study (SNDA-1)  participation in the National School Lunch Program was associated with increased intakes of several key nutrients but also associated with increased intakes of fat, saturated fat and sodium. SNDA-2 was performed in 1998-1999 and it found that the fat and saturated fat content of the meals had gone down without compromising the amount of vitamins provided. This article used data from the SNDA-3 to assess the nutritional quality of the diets of US public school children and to explore the relationship between children's participation in the school meal programs and the nutritional quality of their diets.

Children were required to complete a 24-hour diet recall and interviews. The parents as well were asked to complete a parent interview. Children ranged from grades 1 through 12. Researchers found an association between program participation and excessive sodium intakes along with high prevalence of excessive saturated fat intakes among all students. These findings helps me understand the importance of the revisions to the Child Reauthorization Act. By revising and implementing the changes we can provide healthier choices to children while at school. In the long run, this could influence the food choices the children begin to make on their own.

Trip to Washington DC :)

I had hoped to meet with the USDA to discuss the Child Reauthorization Act and it's progress. However, that contact fell through and was not able to meet. I made a trip to the US Capitol to meet with Congressman Ben Chandler's office for a tour. I had previous contact with a gentleman that worked in the district office in Lexington who was going to pass my information on to a Legislative Assistant in DC. I hadn't heard anything from the assistant in DC so I had given up all hope. However, when we were in Ben Chandler's office a young man came out from the back and said my name! To my surprise it was my legislative assistant contact Robert Kramer! He sat down with me and discussed the bill and asked me about my questions! He ended up contacting the committee for me asking them where the bill stood. Right now there is nothing else that can be regulated since this bill is mandatory funding. Usually with an authorization bill they set out an amount they think is needed to fund the bill and an appropriations committee will decide the final amount. However, this is not the case with the Child Reauthorization Act.

He also gave me a lot of good resources to read through so I hope they provide me with a lot of useful information to understand how this bill is implemented within the communities!

National School Lunch Program

Since my contact with the USDA office in Washington D.C. fell through my next plan of "attack" is to contact the local office in Frankfort, KY. Found the contact information for the office :)

Denise Hagan
502-564-5625 x4709

Sad News :(

My hopeful contact for the USDA office in Washington DC just emailed me back and looks like I can't meet with anyone at their office due to legal issues. Hopefully I can get some information some other way! Keeping my head up!

Update

I received an email from my "liaison" for the USDA office in Washington DC and she is still waiting to hear back from her contacts! Hope I hear good news soon!

Exciting News!!!

Currently Skyping with my brother who goes to school at University of Maryland College Park. He knows a girl at school that used to intern at the USDA office in WASHINGTON, DC and is going to set up a meeting for me when I go visit in March! :) How exciting! Isn't that awesome!

School Lunch Prices a Concern in New York

With the recent passing of the Child Nutrition Act prices for school lunches are expected to rise. Concerns have been made about the prices jumping 10 cents for elementary school lunches and 15 cents for middle and high school lunch. By 2013-14 prices for meals can range from 2.05 to 2.55, elementary-high school respectively.

Any  thoughts about the rise in school lunch? Shouldn't this bring healthier options to the lunch program? 

http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/articles/2011/03/03/news/news709.txt

Federal Regulations to Require Healthier School Lunches!

I found another article that was just posted this afternoon all the way from Oklahoma!

Making changes across the nation :)

http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/articles/2011/03/03/news/news709.txt

Quick Link!

This is the link to the news story I blogged about earlier! Even though it is a story that is a couple weeks old it's still encouragement!

http://www2.turnto10.com/lifestyles/2011/feb/18/health-check-healthier-school-lunches-ar-400607/

Health Check: Healthier School Lunches

With news on the Child Nutrition Act coming to a standstill while legislators are determining funding and regulations I found an interesting article that gives us as professionals hope that this re-authorization will actually impact local communities.

At schools in Rhode Island items on the menu are changing from french fries, pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers nad meatball subs to items like tri-colored cauliflower, tabouli and flavor-roasted chick peas. The exciting thing: the students actually like it!

Even dramatic changes aren't needed. Most schools are serving pizza bake on whole wheat crust, turkey burgers and Asian lo mein with wheat linguine.

Making these changes allows students to experience new healthy options that some would not know existed outside of school.

Such encouragement for changes to come :)

EatRight!

On the American Dietetic Association website eatright.org it was brought to my attention that there would be some helpful information regarding the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act. I started clicking around and found an email address (govaffairs@eatright.org)that I could use to receive recent information and action on the bill! I think I am going to send them an email by the end of this week to see what they have to say about some recent information! Hopefully I hear some good news from them soon!

New Goal:)

Since the USDA is a sponsor of the Child Nutrition Act my newest goal is to contact a representative at the office in Frankfort to get some more information from them within the next two weeks! Hope I can pull it off!! :)

Early Care and Education Consortium

The Early Care and Education Consortium has developed a PDF file that provides a summary of the Child Reauthorization Act: Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act. According to this file funding for the legislation directs $44.5 billion over 10 years to carry out the provisions made under the act. Part of this money is being taken from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program which I know is very controversial.



What next: US Department of Agriculture has to create regulations on the new provisions included in the bill. The public will have an opportunity to make comments on the regulations! That's awesome :)

Healthy Schools Campaign

I found a blog associated with the Healthy Schools Campaign that I am going to follow and hopefully receive beneficial information that can help me! Fingers crossed :-)

Where do I go next?

I've been contemplating the question "Where do I Go Next?" This bill was signed by President Obama in December 2010. So what's left for this bill? It's a law so there won't be action in Congress regarding this bill. However, what happens next? We need to get funding and regulations for this bill so we can move on and implement the changes! I found a file online from Washington DC that provides an over all summary of the bill. Once I find out more information I'll post what I know!!


Stay tuned... :)

No Updates...but here is some interesting information!

I haven't heard any recent updates for the Child Nutrition Act however, last week we made a trip to Frankfort, KY to advocate for the Kentucky Dietetic Association for current bills that need attention from the Senate and House! It was a great experience! We advocated for Senate Bill 32, House Bill 89, House Bill 88, and House Bill 172!

I felt like I should share this information because all of the bills target Childhood Obesity and what better way to incorporate whats going on nationally than talk about what's going on statewide!

House Bill 89/Senate Bill 32- adding BMI to the school charts so we as professionals can better track the trends in Childhood Obesity! We don't have enough data from district to district so this would be extremely beneficial for us to target the epidemic locally!

House Bill 88-The Healthy Kids Act establishes a goal to incorporate 150 minutes of weekly activity at the elementary school level as well as prohibiting schools to withhold physical activity as a means of punishment.

House Bill 172- targets standards for physical activity and nutrition for licensed daycare providers.

FitKY

I signed up for the FitKY list serv so I can stay updated on what is going on in Kentucky! I've already received a lot of information that seems interesting and relates to the Child Nutrition Act!

There was recently a webinar to help people get the most out of the new School Nutrition and Wellness Law!

I also received an announcement saying that the Alliance for a Healthier Generation has developed agreements within the industry to provide healthy school meals for at least 30 million students nationwide! Some of the companies that agreed were AdvancePierre Foods, Domino's Pizza, JTM Food Group, McCain Foods USA, Rich Products Corporation, Schwan's Food Service, Trident Seafoods, HPS, Premier healthcare alliance, Summa/Provista, Interflex, Dole Food Company Inc., and the National Turkey Federation! This is awesome that they have agreed to participate in providing healthier school lunches for the children! If we don't start with the kids then how are we going to fight against this obesity epidemic!

--That's all for now :)

What is the Child Nutrtion Act?

Anyone in America who keeps up with the news knows that First Lady Obama is a strong advocate for child nutrition and promoting primary prevention for childhood obesity. This is primarily how I came across this topic. Child nutrition has always interested me and to know that the First Lady is a strong advocate as well made me want to discover what our legislation is actually doing about it!

The Child Nutrition Act is required to be reviewed every 5 years according to the sponsors, the School Nutrition Association and the Food Research and Action Center. The School Breakfast Program and the National School Lunch Program are permanently authorized. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), State Administrative Expenses (SAE), and the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) have to be renewed every 5 years.

There are 3 main bills that are part of the Child Nutrition Act

• H.R 5504- Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act
• S. 3307 Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010
• H.R. 1324/S. 934 The Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act of 2009

The Child Nutrition Act: Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act was signed by President Barack Obama on December 13, 2010.

This information has given me a look into what different aspects are involved in the Child Nutrition Act! I may have gotten myself into some deep waters but look forward to reading up on it within the next few days! I'll let you know what I find out! 

Child Nutrition Act

I never really have kept a blog before but am for my NFA 820 class over legislative issues within the Dietetics Profession. I have chosen to follow the recent passing of the Child Nutrition Act under President Obama's administration. 

In this blog I will be following any progress with the issue and information I have received through contact with legislators and other sponsors!