school food
Healthier food across the board in schools, says U.S.
The Obama administration buttoned down the 2010 reforms in school food — more fruits, vegetables, dairy and whole grains, but less salt, fat and sugar — with a set of new USDA regulations. They include the final version of a rule, originally issued in 2013, calling for healthier snacks and an update to school "wellness" policies that "ensures that any food or beverage marketed on school campuses during the school day meets the Smart Snacks standards."
Speaker Ryan calls for ‘flexibility’ in school-food programs
In the first plank of an election-year policy agenda, Speaker Paul Ryan said congressional Republicans "are producing reforms in federal policies that will give states, schools and local providers the flexibility they need to provide children access to healthy meals."
Apples, the best thing since sliced bread?
The bottom line in a Cornell study: If you want school children to eat more fruit, serve them sliced apples rather than whole fruit. "It sounds simplistic but even the simplest forms of inconvenience affect consumption," says David Just, professor of behavioral economics, told the Washington Post.
In partisan split, House panel approves school food bill
The House Education Committee approved a child nutrition bill to slash a program allowing free meals for students at schools in poor neighborhoods and to start a three-state test of block-grants for school food — with a bloc of Tea Party Republicans saying broader change was needed. The bill, HR 5003, was viewed as a partisan attack on broadly popular programs with little chance to become law.
USDA: House child-nutrition bill pinches poor, subsidizes well-off students
The child-nutrition bill written by House Republicans "is harmful to children's health," said the USDA in the strongest criticism yet of the bill by the administration. In a statement, the agency said the bill "heaps administrative costs on schools and plans to bury parents in more bureaucratic red tape, all while subsidizing well-off children at the expense of our less fortunate children who need help."
Senate nutrition bill? ‘Really great.’ House bill? No comment
White House nutrition adviser Deb Eschmayer declined to say if First Lady Michelle Obama will step into the debate over reauthorization of child nutrition programs that cost $23 billion a year.
Small financial impact when schools sell healthier meals and snacks
A study of 11 school districts in Massachusetts, where requirements for healthier school meals and snacks took effect at the same time, saw a 6.6 percent drop in food service revenue in the first year but revenues rebounded in the second year to nearly the same level as before, says the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
School-food group asks for 35 cents more per meal
West Virginia tops school breakfast scorecard; Utah has worst score
In an annual report on school-breakfast outreach, the anti-hunger Food Research and Action Center said West Virginia did the best job in the country in reaching low-income children, and Utah did the worst.
School kitchens often lack equipment for healthy meals
The White House proposed $35 million for kitchen-equipment grants to schools in its fiscal 2017 budget, a $5 million increase from the current year and "more than any budget provided since the 2009 stimulus hand-out" of $100 million, writes Bettina Elias Siegel, author of the blog The Lunch Tray, in a Civil Eats story.
Child-nutrition bill has momentum after months of squabbling
Fresh from unanimous committee approval of their five-year child nutrition bill, leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee predicted the bill would rocket to Senate passage, and could influence House action as well.
Senate bill may quell child-nutrition squabbles
When the Senate Agriculture Committee votes this week to reauthorize child-nutrition programs costing $22 billion a year, the bipartisan, five-year bill will have the support of the anti-hunger community and school-food operators.
Child-nutrition bill leads ag calendar for 2016
Congress returns to work this year with two issues on the must-do list for the Agriculture Committees: reauthorization of child nutrition programs costing $22 billion a year and reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the overseer of the futures markets.
Breakfast a challenge for small schools, with few participants
The school lunch and breakfast programs "are an important source of basic nutrition for children," write two USDA economists whose analysis indicates that many schools spend more to prepare a breakfast than they see in federal reimbursement. The problem is worst for small schools and districts with comparatively low breakfast participation rates, say economists Michael Ollinger and Joanne Guthrie. Those districts "may struggle to balance nutrition and financial goals," say Ollinger and Guthrie in a report on meal costs and economies of scale for school food programs.
Milk by the bag at school, not by carton
For most U.S. schoolchildren, milk at school comes in a waxy half-pint carton. Golden Hills Elementary School, near Omaha, is trying something different, says Modern Farmer - milk in a bag. School officials say there is less waste with bags than with cartons.
Agreement on child-nutrition programs is near, senators say
Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts said "we're nearly at the finish line" on closed-door negotiations to reauthorize child-nutrition programs that cost $21 billion a year, said Agri-Pulse. At a news conference, Roberts said the legislation would not provide new funding for the nutrition programs, which are headlined by school lunch - "That's just the way it is."
Vilsack asks pediatricians for help on school meals
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack went to the national conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics to enlist its members as defenders of federal child nutrition programs against "a vocal minority" that would weaken them.
Claim: Serving locally grown food boosts school-food popularity
Schools that serve locally grown food and that offer hands-on activities such as school gardens or cooking classes are likely to report higher participation in the school lunch program and less wasted food, says the USDA.