child nutrition
“A lot” of rural schools struggle with lunch rules – Roberts
Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts said his lunch of teriyaki bits, brown rice and green beans at a high school in Shawnee, Kan, was an example of food at a model school.
Roberts to see what’s cooking in Kansas school cafeteria
Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts plans to eat lunch at Mill Valley High School in Shawnee, Kan, today to see "what works and what doesn't" in the school food program.
Roberts says regulatory overkill is top Ag Committee issue
Chairman Pat Roberts says the big issue confronting the Senate Agriculture Committee is "regulatory overkill we are experiencing with every agency" and particularly with the EPA. Roberts mentioned regulatory reform twice while listing committee priorities for this session. "We've got a lot of priorities," he said, citing reauthorization of the CFTC, the mandatory livestock price reporting law, and child nutrition programs - "big time." Regulatory reform, he said, "seems to be the big thing" in farm country.
Slow rise in child nutrition costs, food stamp rolls shrink
The U.S. child nutrition program, due for renewal this year by Congress, will rise in cost by 4 percent annually for the coming decade from the current $21 billion, says CBO. In its annual economic baseline report, CBO says "growth in the number of meals provided and in reimbursement rates will lead to spending increases" for a total cost of $32 billion in 2025. Food prices are projected to rise by 2.7 percent annually in the coming years, a fairly normal rate of food inflation.
Low-income children now a majority in public schools-Study
"Low income students are now a majority of the schoolchildren attending the nation's public schools," said the Southern Education Foundation in a research bulletin. "In 40 of the 50 states, low income students comprised no less than 40 percent of all public schoolchildren. In 21 states, children eligible for free or reduced-price lunches were a majority of the students in 2013." The South and the West accounted for most of the states where low-income children were the majority of school enrollment.
Meal price, family income factors in school lunch participation
The antihunger Food Research and Action Center says recent declines in the number of children in the school lunch program is due to demographics and not changes in the menus to cut down on fat, salt and sugar.
USDA would ban food-frying for meals at day care centers
Day care operators would be barred from frying food for meals served to children and adults under rules proposed by USDA. The government says the proposal, published in the Federal Register, would align day-care meals with school lunch reforms.
Co-founder of FoodCorps will lead Let’s Move! initiative
The White House named Debra Eschmeyer, co-founder of FoodCorps, as the new executive director of the Let's Move! initiative of First Lady Michelle Obama against childhood obesity.
Six big US school districts specify antibiotic-free chicken
The Urban School Food Alliance, composed of six of the largest U.S. school districts, announced its members want antibiotic-free chicken to serve in their cafeterias.
Omnibus bill relaxes whole grain, salt rules for school food
Congress would relax rules that call for schools to use more whole grains and to reduce salt in meals provided to students, according to provisions of a government-wide funding bill. Unveiled on Tuesday night, the bill also calls for USDA to study the nutritional content of vegetables available in the so-called WIC program before removing any of them from the program - a response to complaints that white potatoes were being singled out unfairly.
Child nutrition rules “in play” as spending bill is written
During negotiations over a long-term spending bill, "(c)hild nutrition standards backed by First Lady Michelle Obama were in play," says Politico.
Chefs stir up nutrition policy in Congress
The Chef Action Network is on the same page with Food Policy Action, says Politico. Both are recent creations with a food-movement orientation and both hope to influence lawmakers.
Healthy meals a hard sell, no matter who makes them
Whether they bring food from home or buy food at school, children aren't eating healthy lunches, says a Bloomberg story about two small-scale studies.
Local meat, seafood, produce top food trends in 2015
A survey of professional chefs says the top food trends in 2015 are locally sourced meats and seafood, and locally grown produce, says the National Restaurant Association.
Global declaration of right to food at nutrition conference
At the International Conference on Nutrition meeting in Rome, senior officials from 170 nations "made a number of concrete commitments and adopted a series of recommendations on policies and investments aimed at ensuring that all people have access to healthier and more sustainable diets," says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
AGree calls for conservation, nutrition and food aid reforms
The AGree project, a multiyear endeavor to reach consensus among food and farm leaders, released a package of four papers that call for substantial remodeling of U.S. conservation, public nutrition and food aid programs as well as comprehensive immigration reform.
Food given to babies can set eating patterns for life
Researchers at the University of Buffalo say babies given foods high in sugar, fat and protein in their early months of life are more likely to eat less nutritious foods later in life.
School lunch waivers “back on the table” after election day
The Republican-backed proposal to give some schools a waiver from school lunch reforms "will probably be back on the table" in the lame duck session of Congress, write two pediatricians in the New England Journal of Medicine.