I hope some of you have had a chance to read my “State of the Tray” piece published in Civil Eats last week, which asked whether the school food gains achieved by the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) are now at risk.
One of the developments I discussed in that piece was the “Reducing Federal Mandates on School Lunch Act,” a federal bill recently introduced by Republican Congresswoman Kristi Noem of South Dakota. This bill, if enacted, would lift the grain and protein caps in school meals (a non-issue, since USDA has already done this), lift the overall calorie caps on school meals (a pet issue of conservative pundits and politicians ever since the HHFKA was enacted), and also allow school districts to waive any and all requirements of the HHFKA if complying with such requirements would result in “increased cost.”
It’s that last provision which would be the death of the HHFKA. That’s because most districts do have to spend more to pay for healthier food, since fresher, whole foods generally cost more than highly processed food, whether due to the price of the food itself or the increased labor costs associated with its preparation. Moreover, Noem’s bill gives districts complete discretion in determining whether they’re incurring “increased cost,” with the USDA expressly barred from weighing in.
It’s hard to predict how much political traction Noem’s bill will attain, though I did note in the Civil Eats piece that it already has the endorsement of the National School Boards Association and the School Superintendents’ Association. But it’s notable that yesterday the Detroit News ran an opinion piece by Rep. Candace Miller (R-MI) in which she lends her support to the Reducing Federal Mandates on School Lunch Act. Titled “School Lunch v. The Nanny State,” Miller’s piece argues that the HHFKA’s mandates are “nanny state” intrusions on school districts, which have created”a maze of required calorie counts, colors and portion sizes” and which
ensure is that public school officials spend countless hours complying with bureaucratic guidelines for the production of meals that students increasingly don’t want to eat. (For an amusing take on the subject, see the YouTube video “We Are Hungry”)*
Miller also argues that schools are not being given enough money to pay for the law’s HHFKA’s healthier food mandates, and that kids are throwing out the healthier school food.
While most experts agree that the HHFKA’s “6 cents per lunch” reimbursement increase was insufficient to pay for healthier school food, the Noem/Miller approach is not to ask Congress for a funding increase but instead to allow schools to go back to serving kids the less healthy food they’re used to eating. Miller writes:
Fitzgerald Public School administrators say the new guidelines represent a maddening overreach by distant federal officials with little or no understanding of how kids actually behave.
“We welcome healthy foods. We want our meals to be nutritious. But the goal should be to serve food they want to eat,” said one administrator.
Even the School Nutrition Association, the nation’s largest organization of school food professionals, is asking for roll-backs of some of the HHFKA’s core requirements on the same grounds, i.e., that students are rejecting healthier offerings. When school meal programs are up for funding again in 2015, the SNA will ask Congress to remove a requirement that kids be served fruits or vegetables at lunch (instead of being allowed to pass them by), a lowering of the law’s whole grain requirements, and other changes which will weaken the HHFKA’s nutritional goals. (The SNA has taken no public position on the Reducing Federal Mandates on School Lunch Act.)
As I noted in Civil Eats, it seems unlikely that the Reducing Federal Mandates on School Lunch Act will become law in the face of a Democratic Senate and an administration which regards the HHFKA as one of Michelle Obama’s signature achievements as First Lady. But the animating force behind the bill and behind SNA’s requests — i.e., that kids just aren’t eating healthier food and it’s winding up in the trash — could well result in a chipping away of the HHFKA’s major advancements.
That possibility seems all the more likely since the SNA will not be taking the opposite tack, i.e., staying the course when it comes to healthy food and trusting kids to get used to the new offerings, but also asking Congress for more money to fund the law’s requirements. Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokesperson for the SNA, told me in an email interview that the SNA won’t be asking for more funding because it’s a nonstarter on Capitol Hill:
Although SNA is emphasizing the extremely limited funding under which school meal programs must operate, members of Congress and their staff on both sides of the aisle from key authorizing committees have made it extremely clear that additional funding will not be available for child nutrition programs as part of reauthorization. It’s important to keep in mind that Congress has just cut funding for SNAP and advocates for child nutrition programs will need to fight to protect current funding in this difficult budget environment.
I don’t doubt that eking more money out of Congress would be difficult, and maybe even impossible. But if the leading voice of school food professionals isn’t even raising the issue, it seems all the more likely that Congress will agree to cost-free roll-backs of the law’s key advancements.
Food waste and decreased program participation were entirely predictable consequences of imposing healthier school food on children long accustomed to school meals laden with sugar, fat and salt, especially without mandated nutrition education to support the meal changes.
But the answer to those problems should not be a return to the all-beige tray.
_____________
* That “amusing” “We Are Hungry” video referenced by Miller, which went viral shortly after the passage of the HHFKA, was not the spontaneous outcry from students it purports to be; later news reports revealed that the video was conceived, and the lyrics written, by two adults, one a teacher and the other a school district employee, who then sent the video to their Republican Congressional representatives to show their support for the repeal of the HHFKA.
Do You Love The Lunch Tray? ♥♥♥ Then “like” The Lunch Tray! Join almost 8,000 TLT fans by liking TLT’s Facebook page (and then adding it to your news feed or interest lists) to get your Lunch delivered, along with bonus commentary, interesting kid-and-food links, and stimulating discussion with other readers. You can also join over 4,200 TLT followers on Twitter, see my virtual bulletin boards on Pinterest and find selected TLT posts on The Huffington Post. And be sure to check out my free video for kids about processed food, “Mr. Zee’s Apple Factory!”
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Bettina Elias Siegel
[…] The Lunch Tray reports that a growing number of Congressional Republicans are seeking to gut the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. […]