It’s been a while since I updated you on the pending battle in Congress over school food nutritional standards. Here’s the latest:
The Senate Agriculture Committee and House Education and Workforce Committee are hoping to attach the Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) to the pending omnibus spending bill, negotiations over which are likely to be extended (via a pending continuing resolution) at least until December 16th, if not later.
To refresh everyone’s memory, the main nutritional issues on the table relate to whole grains, sodium and fruits and vegetables. Specifically, the School Nutrition Association and its allies are seeking to: slash by 50% the amount of “whole grain-rich” foods served to kids; make it optional instead of mandatory for kids to take a 1/2 cup serving of fruits or vegetables at lunch; and halt further sodium reductions in school food.
The National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity has created this compelling infographic (click to enlarge) outlining nine reasons why these proposed roll-backs are a bad idea:
I’ll keep you updated on further CNR developments – and in the meantime, please contact your own Congressional representatives to tell them to #SaveSchoolLunch!
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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2015 Bettina Elias Siegel
Kelsey Weisgerber says
Thank you for continuing to post updates on the CNR! It’s quite interesting that I am seeing very little coverage of this in the media/online. Is there a strong resource that I may reference frequently to stay up to date with developments and additional information.
As a healthy school “lunch lady” I appreciate your blog and applaud your continued dedication to investigating the politics of school lunch.
Kelsey Weisgerber
@EnviroLunch
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Hi Kelsey! Thanks for the kind words. For updates on the CNR, I most rely on the Politico Morning Agriculture report and the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) newsletter, both of which you can sign up for at no cost and have delivered to your in-box. Keep up the good work!