FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, March 5, 2009
Contact: Jeff Cronin, 202-777-8370, or Stacey Greene, 202-777-8316
Congress to Tackle Junk Food in Schools
Legislators, Health Groups Aim to Update
Carter-Era Nutrition Standards
WASHINGTON—Buoyed by a President and
Secretary
of Agriculture
who have voiced
their support for healthier school foods
, health groups say this
is the year Congress should take action
. Today, Representative
Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) is
introducing
a bill
that would get junk foods
out of schools once and for all. The bill is likely to be addressed
when Congress
reauthorizes
the Child Nutrition Act
, which
expires this year.
Current
federal law only prohibits the sale of narrowly defined “
foods
of minimal nutritional value
”
in the cafeteria during meal times. But the nutrition standards for
those foods haven’t been updated in 30 years, during which time obesity
rates in children have tripled. The
Child
Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act
would have the U.S. Department of Agriculture update the nutrition standards
for foods sold alongside school meals in cafeterias, vending machines,
school stores, and elsewhere. Those standards would apply throughout
the school day, and everywhere on campus—important reforms in an era where
“multi-purpose rooms” are replacing cafeterias and vending machines line
hallways.
While
the typical school lunch is reasonably balanced, according to
CSPI
,
children may replace it with, or add to it, sugary sports drinks, pizza,
French fries, Snickers bars, Cheetos, or other nutritionally poor choices
from a la carte, vending, and other sources.
“Despite
pockets of progress in some states and school systems, most schools make
junk food readily available to children,” said CSPI
nutrition
policy
director Margo G. Wootan.
“But junk food in schools helps fuel an epidemic of obesity and
diabetes in children. And, it undercuts the considerable federal
investment we make in the healthy school lunch program.”
“Current
nutrition standards keep some junk food out of our schools but let other
junk food in through the back door. Today, doughnuts are allowed
but lollipops are not. Cookies are fine, but breath mints are banned.
This doesn’t make any sense,” Woolsey said. “It undermines
the federal nutrition standards for meals if students spend their money
on unhealthy options. It also undermines the role of parents who
give lunch money to their children expecting them to eat something wholesome
and nutritious and their money is spent on unhealthy options instead. That’s
why I introduced this legislation, and I look forward to working with my
colleagues to get it signed into law.”
USDA’s
definition of foods of minimal nutritional value
hasn’t changed since 1979. The Carter Administration’s definition
was focused on making sure foods sold in schools had five percent or more
of the recommended daily intake levels of protein, vitamin C, calcium,
and other nutrients. However, that definition included no maximum
amounts for calories, saturated fat, or sodium—all of which children now
consume too much of. As a result, innocuous products like seltzer
water or breath mints are forbidden, while ice cream bars and doughnuts
are perfectly acceptable.
“Look,
you can see how officials 30 years ago might have been concerned about
whether our children were getting enough riboflavin or niacin,” Wootan
said. “Today, we need to reorient food policies toward preventing
obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related diseases that might result in
this generation of children living shorter lives than their parents.”
“Many
of the foods being sold to our students on school grounds undermine federal
investment in healthy school meals, nutrition education, and the lifelong
lessons that parents teach their children about healthy eating habits,”
said National PTA President Jan Harp Domene. “Families and local
leaders have successfully advocated to remove unhealthy alternatives from
some schools, but it is time for national leadership on this issue.”
Besides
CSPI and the National PTA, the legislation is backed by a powerful coalition
of medical, health, and children’s advocacy groups including the American
Dental Association, American Diabetes Association, American Dietetic Association,
American Heart Association, Partnership for Prevention, Save the Children,
and School Nutrition Association. The bill has 88 cosponsors.
When in
the Senate, President Obama had his own bill to get junk food out of schools,
and his proposed budget announced last week includes a
$1-billion-a-year
increase
for child nutrition, which
includes the school lunch and breakfast programs and WIC. That’s
on top of $100 million included in the economic stimulus package to upgrade
equipment in school cafeterias, which in many cases means replacing fryolators
with ovens, or better refrigeration to accommodate more fresh fruits and
vegetables.
Some states
and localities have acted on their own to improve school foods, and voluntary
agreements, like one brokered in 2006 by former President Bill Clinton,
have helped further. Still, the majority of drinks and snacks sold
in schools are of poor nutritional quality and
two-thirds
of states
have weak or no policies
on school nutrition.