US President Barack Obama yesterday (Monday 13 December) signed into law the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 at a ceremony held at the Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Washington DC.
The President applauded the bipartisan support for this significant legislation, and explained the broader implications for how nutrition affects children as they grow up.
“We need to make sure our kids have the energy and the capacity to go toe to toe with any of their peers, anywhere in the world,” President Obama said. And we need to make sure that they’re all reaching their potential.”
A fact sheet issued along with statements of support from across the political spectrum described exactly how the bill achieves these goals, and a sample menu illustrate what the law will mean in real life.
“Today is a great day for kids throughout our country as they will soon have healthier, and more nutritious food in their schools,” commented US Secretary Of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
“As we continue to focus on the twin issues of childhood obesity and hunger, we will increase access to good, quality meals in school cafeterias so the nutritional needs of our youngsters are better met.
“The President and First Lady have advocated strongly for passing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, and, this bill, along with the resources and the powers provided under it, are going to allow USDA to be much more effective and aggressive in responding to obesity and hunger challenges for America’s kids.”
As one of her chief responsibilities and greatest passions, First Lady Michelle Obama has dedicated herself to helping our children grow up healthy and reversing the alarming childhood obesity trend.
“We can all agree that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, all children should have the basic nutrition they need to learn and grow and to pursue their dreams, because in the end, nothing is more important than the health and well-being of our children – nothing.And our hopes for their future should drive every single decision that we make,” Mrs Obama said.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 aims to improve nutrition and focus on reducing childhood obesity. The law is designed do the following:
• Give the USDA the authority to set nutritional standards for all foods regularly sold in schools during the school day, including vending machines, the “a la carte” lunch lines, and school stores.
• Provide additional funding to schools that meet updated nutritional standards for federally-subsidized lunches. This is an historic investment, the first real reimbursement rate increase in over 30 years.
• Help communities establish local farm to school networks, create school gardens, and ensures that more local foods are used in the school setting.
• Build on USDA work to improve nutritional quality of commodity foods that schools receive from USDA and use in their breakfast and lunch programsme.
• Expand access to drinking water in schools, particularly during meal times.
• Set basic standards for school wellness policies including goals for nutrition promotion and education and physical activity, while still permitting local flexibility to tailor the policies to their particular needs.
• Promote nutrition and wellness in child care settings through the federally-subsidized Child and Adult Care Food Program.
• Expand support for breastfeeding through the WIC programme.
Increase Access
• Increase the number of eligible children enrolled in school meal programmes by approximately 115,000 students by using Medicaid data to directly certify children who meet income requirements.
• Help certify an average additional 4,500 students per year to receive school meals by setting benchmarks for states to improve the certification process.
• Allow more universal meal access for eligible students in high poverty communities by eliminating paper applications and using census data to determine school-wide income eligibility.
• Expand USDA authority to support meals served to at-risk children in afterschool programmes.
Increase Programme Monitoring and Integrity
• Require school districts to be audited every three years to improve compliance with nutritional standards.
• Require schools to make information more readily available to parents about the nutritional quality of meals.
• Include provisions to ensure the safety of school foods like improving recall procedures and extending hazard analysis and food safety requirements for school meals throughout the campus.
• Provide training and technical assistance for school food service providers.
