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child nutrition

Healthy snacks reduce obesity rate in Arkansas school study

A study by U-Arkansas researchers says a program that provides free fresh fruit and vegetable snacks to school children reduced obesity rates by 3 percentage points among elementary school pupils.

Senate bill would label GE salmon, block beef imports

Retailers would have to identify transgenic salmon as genetically engineered and imports of raw beef from Brazil and Argentina would be barred under the USDA/FDA funding bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Senate ag chairman says “flexibility” is key for school-food bill

Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts says the word he hears again and again is "flexibility" when the topic is renewal of U.S. child nutrition programs that cost $21 billion a year.

Soda consumption in Mexico down 6 percent after tax

Mexicans reduced their purchases of sugary beverages by 6 percent following implementation of a one-peso-per-liter tax on sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda, according to a study by the Mexican National Institute of Public Health and the University of North Carolina.

School-lunch debate – 25 calories apart?

The school lunch reforms of 2010 resulted in skimpy meals that leave high school students hungry, says House Education Committee chairman John Kline, who wants to give school districts "the flexibility they need to fulfill the promise of child nutrition assistance."

Berkeley schools to get garden, cooking funds from soda tax

The panel overseeing money collected from Berkeley's 1-cent-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages has recommended that $250,000 of the revenue go to the cooking and gardening program at city schools, says Berkeleyside, the independent news site.

School meals free for all Baltimore pupils

"For the first time in the history of the school lunch program, all children in Baltimore are created equal," says the Baltimore Sun. The city is among a handful of districts in Maryland to adopt "community eligibility," which...

Schools seek less paperwork, more money for meals

South Dakota's secretary of education told a House Education subcommittee that schools are swamped by too much paperwork from the federal school food program. A school board president from Indiana said some students smuggle in salt and pepper to season the bland meals served at school...

U-Kentucky is tabbed by USDA for rural child-poverty center

The University of Kentucky will establish a Rural Child Poverty Nutrition Center to help local groups find ways to coordinate nutrition programs and reduce food insecurity among children in rural areas.

Children eating less fast-food burgers, pizza and chicken

Children are eating less frequently at fast-food restaurants and consuming fewer calories from burgers, pizza and chicken sold at the outlets, say two researchers from Tufts and the University of Washington.

USDA expands “Team Up” program for school meals

The USDA announced a nationwide expansion of its "Team Up for School Nutrition Success Initiative" to provide additional help to school districts to meet food requirements.

Roberts plans “big-picture discussion” of school food rules

Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts says that, as part of reauthorizing school lunch and other child nutrition programs, he plans to "have a big-picture discussion on how to retain the great advancements that some schools have made, and to allow other districts to meet the challenges."

States, tribes will test ways to reduce rural child hunger

Five pilot projects will test ways to reduce child hunger in rural America, with approaches that range from home delivery of food to providing three school meals a day, says the Agriculture Department. The USDA awarded $27 million in grants for the demonstration projects in Virginia, Kentucky and Nevada, and the Chickasaw and Navajo nations, from money provided in the 2010 child-nutrition law.

First Lady brings in star power to boost produce consumption

First Lady Michelle Obama "is enlisting some high-wattage star power — including actresses Jessica Alba and Kristen Bell, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz — in a new national campaign to convince moms and teens to eat fruits and veggies," reports Politico.

House, Senate bills would triple farm-to-school program

Companion bills in the House and Senate would triple the funding, to $15 million a year, for the farm-to-school grant program, which buys locally grown fresh food to help feed schoolchildren.

The school cafeteria, a place to chill out

San Francisco is remodeling its public school cafeterias to make them more attractive to students, according to stories in The Atlantic and on KGO-TV. The idea is to ensure students eat a nourishing meal.

FRAC: school breakfast reaches more low-income children

"School breakfast continues to make significant gains in communities across the United States," says the antihunger Food Research and Action Center, summarizing two new reports that it issued. FRAC says 53 percent of children who qualified for free or reduced-price school lunch also participated in school breakfast, up 1 percentage point from 2013 and 10 points higher than a decade ago.

USDA expects uptick in school lunch participation number

A program that provides free school meals to all pupils in high-poverty neighborhoods will be the main driver in boosting participation in the school lunch and school breakfast program, says the Agriculture Department. In its proposed budget for fiscal 2016, USDA forecasts average lunch participation of 30.3 million students daily, up 100,000 from the current year, and school breakfast of 14.6 million students daily, up 600,000.

Four rural districts win USDA school food awards

Rural school districts in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, and Ohio are winners of Healthy Meal Initiatives awards for improving the nutritional quality of meals served to students, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Monday. Vilsack announced the awards during a speech to school food directors in which he said healthy school meals could combat the rising U.S. child obesity rate.

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