News
March 31, 2009
statement of chairman tom harkin on beyond federal school meal programs: reforming nutrition for kids in schools
“Witnesses and audience members, welcome to today’s hearing. This is the third hearing of this Committee toward enacting new legislation to extend and improve federal support to sound nutrition for our nation’s children – through school lunches and breakfasts, summer meals, child care food assistance, and special nutrition help for women, infants, and children.
“In previous hearings, we heard how essential the child nutrition programs are and about evolving challenges facing families, schools, communities, and states in supplying good nutrition to children, especially in a tough economy. We received valuable suggestions. Modernizing and strengthening these programs is a vital part of our efforts to fight hunger, improve children’s health, and boost education and learning.
“Over 60 years ago, President Truman and Congress founded the federal child nutrition programs on the principle that sound nutrition promotes lifelong health and prevents illness and disease. Of course, that principle still stands, though the details have changed.
“The nutritional and diet-related conditions and diseases plaguing today’s children include previously unheard-of rates of overweight, obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. That’s why the child nutrition bill we are writing is integral to reforming our nation’s health system. Sound nutrition is indispensable to preventing illness and disease, and to helping Americans lead healthier, longer lives and reduce health costs which are by far the highest in the world.
“Schools have improved the nutritional quality of federally-sponsored meals over the years, and that progress continues. There is still room for improvement, but because they must meet USDA standards, meals reimbursed by USDA are by and large nutritious and consistent with the scientific Dietary Guidelines for Americans. To see how America’s children are really eating, though, we must look to the entire school nutrition environment.
“We know from authoritative surveys and common experience that the majority of our schools offer children ready access to heavily sweetened beverages, highly salted snacks, sugary and high-fat baked goods, and candy. These items are sold in vending machines, snack bars, and school stores, or in cafeteria a la carte lines which sell food in direct competition against USDA-sponsored meals meeting USDA nutrition standards.
“In fact, on an average day only 62 percent of American kids who could do so eat the federally-sponsored lunch.
“We know from research what any parent understands from common sense - that junk food obtained from vending machines, snack bars, school stores, or a la carte lines is far less nutritious and nutritionally balanced than meals meeting USDA standards. Unlike USDA-sponsored meals, none of all those other foods and beverages sold in schools needs to meet nutrition standards – except for very minor time and place restrictions. Clearly, these sales undermine the $11.5 billion investment that taxpayers will make this year in nutritious school lunches and breakfasts, but even worse, they are damaging the health and lives of our nation’s children.
“Today we will hear from educators, parents, and representatives of the food and beverage industries who have worked to improve school nutrition. Where schools have succeeded in improving the nutritional quality of foods and beverages they sell, a crucial element of that success has been adopting and carrying out clear nutrition standards and objectives. Unfortunately, such progress in schools across the nation is extremely limited, and is dwarfed by the magnitude of the threat to our children’s health.
“Research shows that a large majority of the local school wellness policies adopted under the 2004 child nutrition bill are either weak, or even worse, simply collecting dust on the shelf. And despite more than a decade of effort, just a handful of states have adopted their own school nutrition standards.
“It is increasingly clear that we will continue to fail to provide American children the sound nutrition so vital to their health and well-being in the absence of effective federal leadership and standards. In a decided shift over the past 15 years, many different stakeholders now broadly agree. Republicans and Democrats, local school officials and education groups, the medical and scientific community, and many in the food and beverage industry agree that the time has come for the federal government to establish sound, science-based nutrition standards for all foods and beverages in schools.
“Experience shows that school nutrition standards are feasible and practicable. Already, to suit the marketplace, food and beverage suppliers are offering new products that are nutritious, healthful, and appealing to kids. Schools have learned they need not lose revenue when they set standards and offer healthier, more nutritious food and beverages – and many found they increased revenue.
“Of course, the task is not simple, but with commitment and leadership it can be done, as we will hear from witnesses today.
“On that note, I would like to turn to our Ranking Member, Senator Chambliss, and then to our expert witnesses. Again, I thank them for their contribution to the Committee’s deliberations.”
