A three-state test of block grants for school lunch and breakfast programs would short-change schools and lead to less-nutritious meals for students, said a chorus of opponents that included lawmakers, anti-hunger groups and a group speaking for school food directors. The news conference on Capitol Hill underlined the split between the School Nutrition Association (SNA) and its one-time Republican allies.
The block grant, proposed by Republicans on the House Education Committee, has become the salient issue in a bill to update child nutrition programs costing $23 billion a year. A last-minute addition to the bill, the block grant eclipsed the squabble over language in the bill to prevent thousands of schools in poor neighborhoods from offering free meals to all students.
Restrictions on the so-called Community Eligibility Provision generate enough savings to pay for a 2-cent increase in the reimbursement rate for school breakfast, and “responsibly directs resources to the students who need them,” said the Education Committee. The tighter rules on community eligibility are estimated to save $300 million a year.
Approved by the Education Committee a month ago, the child nutrition bill is believed to have little chance of becoming law as Congress nears election-year gridlock on controversial legislation. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said last week “we are going to do whatever it takes to make sure this bill never sees the light of day on the floor of the House.”
The block grant would remove most federal regulation of school meals and let states decide which students are eligible for aid, what would go into a meal and how often meals would be served. The bill calls for one affordable meal a day.
“The proposed block grant funding cuts would cripple school meal programs and compromise the quality of meals for students,” said SNA president Jean Ronnei. The association said the block grant would strip schools of reimbursements they now get when they sell a full-price meal and for meeting 2010 reforms that call for healthier meals. Losses in the first year of the block grant would range from $8 million in Oregon to $78 million in California, said SNA.
However, it has been unclear which states might volunteer for the pilot.
Lynn Harvey, in charge of nutrition programs at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, said states are unlikely to cover shortfalls in lunch programs because they have tight budgets too. Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the senior Democrat on the House Education Committee, pointed to the 1946 creation of the school lunch program in saying “feeding hungry children is not only a moral imperative, but also a federal responsibility, vital to the health and security of our nation.”
Under the block grant format, states could divert school nutrition money to other uses nor would funding for school meals increase during hard times, as it does now, said the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. The Food Research and Action Center, an antihunger group, said the block grant “would eliminate the nation’s bipartisan commitment” to school nutrition.