The federally-funded child nutrition programs – which include school lunch and breakfast, child care meals, afterschool snacks, summer foods, and WIC – will be reauthorized by Congress in 2009. The reauthorization process is a great opportunity to improve these programs at the federal level.  We are working with state, regional, and national partners to enact changes to improve the health of low-income children in California and across the country.  We hope that the following information will help you advocate on behalf of hungry, low-income children in California.

Action Items and Updates

August 2010

Just before the Senate went on its August recess, it unanimously passed Senator Lincoln's child nutrition bill (described below).  However, it made one major change by partially funding the bill with a cut in food stamp benefits.  Action on the child nutrition reauthorization now moves to the House.  When it returns from its August recess, the House will likely take up the child nutrition bill.

Already, a handful of Democrats in the House and Senate have voiced their opposition to these food stamp cuts and have committed to restoring benefit levels.  And, this letter from 106 House Democrats went to relevant House leaders urging them to find other offsets for funding child nutrition programs.

The food stamp cuts would take place in a few years and would scale back increased food stamp spending from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus bill).  Some might tell you that scaling back the ARRA increase is not really a cut.  We reject this argument.  Food stamp benefits were largely inadequate before the ARRA increase.  The ARRA boost simply brought benefit levels closer to adequate for a low-income family.  For more talking points on this, click here.

Action Steps!

If you have not already done so, please join 1600 other organizations and sign-on to this opposition letter circulated by our friends at FRAC.

Check the signatories for the House letter mentioned above.  If your Representative is on it, please call and thank him or her.  If not, call to voice your opposition to the food stamp cut.

To find your Representative, click here.

Members are home in their districts during this recess.  Because it is an election year, they are eager to hear from constituents.  Be sure to let your Representative know that cutting food stamp benefits during these tough economic times is unacceptable.  In addition, raiding food stamp benefits to pay for child nutrition programs designed for low-income children is like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

For more talking points and facts on these cuts, check out this useful document from FRAC.

If you'd like to talk more about the funding formula, options for Congress, or anything else on these issues, please contact Matt Sharp, matt@cfpa.net, 213.482.8200 or Kumar Chandran, kumar@cfpa.net, 510.433.1122 x129.

July 2010

The House Education and Labor Committee passed its reauthorization legislation (HR 5504, Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act) on July 15th.  More info can be found here.

At a hearing on July 1, House Education and Labor Committee Chairman, George Miller (D-Martinez), announced plans for the committee to begin "mark-up" of its child nutrition reauthorization bill after the July 4th recess.

The need for Congress to act this year to reauthorize the child nutrition programs has recently garnered a lot of press and attention.  With a wide range of advocates pushing for change from celebrity chefs like Rachel Ray and Top Chef head judge, Tom Colicchio, to the First Lady Michelle Obama, child nutrition has never received this much attention.  We must capitalize on all this focus and urge Congress to get this done!

Call our two Senators, Boxer and Feinstein, and your representative, and tell them to get child nutrition reauthorization passed.  The Senate bill is called the "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act" (S. 3307) and the House bill is called the "Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act' (HR 5504).

The tray below was distributed to key Senators and Representatives this week to urge them to act quickly on CNR:

June 2010

On Thursday June 9^th, 2010, the House Education and Labor Committee introduced its proposal to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act.  For a video of the Chairman’s remarks at the press conference unveiling the legislation (including celebrity chefs, such as Mary Sue Milken of Los Angeles), click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCppmGZZae8.

What can advocates do to bring the benefits of better nutrition to California children and their families?

1) Tell your member of the House of Representatives how important these new investments are to your community. Without their swift action to pass this bill and to find the funds, called offsets, to pay for it, many of these fabulous new benefits will not reach needy California children.

2) Tell your member of the House to protect taxpayers and WIC participants from unproven food additives by requiring USDA to evaluate the costs and benefits of “functional” foods in WIC.

3) Stay tuned. Additional actions coming soon.

Here is a summary of the most important changes to the child nutrition programs proposed in H.R.5504:

Expands Enrollment and Participation in School Meals
• Expands the direct certification provisions in the Senate Agriculture Committee’s bill (S.3307) by providing free meals to low-income Medicaid participants through expanding direct certification, with a gradual phase-in nationwide over 10 years. This is a major, new investment.
• Mirrors the Senate bill to allow schools in high-poverty areas to offer free meals to all students without collecting paper applications.
• Provides performance awards to states that show substantial improvement or outstanding performance in direct certification of eligible children and requires improvement plans for states that don’t meet performance expectations for direct certification.
• Offers breakfast expansion grants to open new sites and increase participation.
• Strengthens policies to prevent overt identification of low-income children participating in NSLP, as well as to deal with unpaid meal balances to prevent students from receiving “cheese sandwiches” as punishment.

Improves Nutrition in School Meals
• Like the Senate bill, the House Ed and Labor bill invests significant resources in a performance-based increase in the federal reimbursement rate for school lunches (six cents per meal) to help schools meet the Institute Of Medicine’s standards for healthier school meals.
• Gives USDA the authority to establish national nutrition standards for all foods sold on the school campus throughout the extended school day, including the time before and after school.
• Requires schools to make water available during meal times.
• Strengthens school food financing oversight of indirect costs.

Child Care Food Program
Mirrors many of the improvements in the Senate bill to help infants and toddlers, such as:

• Revises the nutrition standards for meals, snacks and beverages served through the Child Care Food Program to make them consistent with the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• Provides education and encouragement to participating child care centers and homes to provide children with healthy meals and snacks and daily opportunities for physical activity, and to limit screen time.
• Increases USDA training, technical assistance and educational materials available to child care providers, helping them to serve healthier food.
• Reduces paperwork, simplifies program requirements, and supports oversight by eliminating the block claim requirement completely and establishing permanent operating agreements and renewable applications.
• Paperwork reduction report to Congress. Establishes a simplified method of determining sponsor monthly administrative funding. Allows sponsors more flexibility to use their funds effectively from one fiscal year to the next.
• Funds a program to recognize high performing states, sponsors, child care centers and homes promoting nutrition and wellness for children 0-5.
• Enhances program reimbursements by $5 per home to support CACFP sponsoring organizations in their effort to do nutrition education and training.

Summer and Afterschool Food Programs
• Lowers area eligibility for Summer Food to 40 percent in rural areas. The current threshold is 50 percent in all areas.
• Builds on California’s year-round Summer Food Service Program by providing similar authority in 10 states for eligible sponsors to provide children a meal or snack afterschool and on weekends.
• Provides money through the National School Lunch Program to serve afterschool meals in five states. This is an important step forward, since the current structure for school-based afterschool nutrition requires unnecessary paperwork that keeps many schools from serving meals.
• Mirrors the Senate Agriculture Committee’s bill (S.3307) by requiring school food authorities to improve the local coordination of summer nutrition outreach.

Women, Infants and Children Food Program
• Promotes breastfeeding by expanding the collection of WIC breastfeeding data and creating performance bonuses for state agencies with high rates of breastfeeding.
• Mandates WIC electronic benefit transfer (EBT) implementation nationwide.

What’s not in the House bill that’s in the Senate bill?

• No requirement for USDA to seek science-based review of food additives in WIC foods.
• No requirement for schools to reform paid meal prices to achieve parity with meal costs.

April 2010

Senate Agriculture Committee Passes "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act"

The Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously passed the Healthy, Hunger Free-Kids Act.  This bill invests an additional $4.5 billion in the child nutrition programs over the next 10 years and is a step in the right direction.  While weare pleased with many of the improvements to benefit the nutrition of low-income children, we're still hopeful Congress and the Obama administration can find the funding to meet the President's goal of $10 billion in new investments. 

Click here for a short video of Senate Ag Committee members discussing the bill.

March 2010

Senator Lincoln, Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Unveils Her Child Nutrition Bill 

Click here for our quick analysis and summary of the bill.  CFPA welcomes Senator Lincoln's proposal for improving and expanding the child nutrition programs.  Indeed, many of the improvements we have called for are included in this bill.  The bill calls for $4.5 billion in new investments over the next 10 years.  However, this greater commitment to improving child nutrition still falls short of the Obama administration's target of an additional $1 billion in program improvements per year, for a total of $10 billion in new investments over the next 10 years.  To truly tackle hunger and promote healthy eating, Congress must find more funding.  Stay tuned for more details!

Senator Klobuchar (D-MN) Releases "Healthy Living Starts Early Act" to Improve Child Care Nutrition

CFPA applauds Senator Klobuchar's introduction of a bill to improve nutrition for our youngest eaters in child care.  The Healthy Living Starts Early Act (S. 3124) calls for improved nutrition, limits on screentime, and increased physical activity.  In addition, the bill would reduce paperwork in the Child an Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).  Click here for a recent news article on the bill.

February 2010

Secretary Vilsack Outlines Obama Administration Priorities for Child Nutrition Reauthorization

On February 23, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack laid out the Obama Administration's priorities for reauthorizing the child nutrition programs and their role in combating both child hunger and obesity.  Noting that too many children suffer from inadequate consumption of healthy foods that can lead to both hunger and obesity, Secretary Vilsack highlighted how a strong reauthorization could satifsy both the President's pledge to end child hunger by 2015 and the First Lady's newly announced campaign to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic, "Let's Move!".  Click here for the text of Secretary Vilsack's prepared remarks and here for a press release on his speech.

The Secretary's priorities are largely consistent with CFPA's, including improving the nutritional quality of school meals, expanding access to and participation in these meals, and strengthening the School Breakfast Program.  The President's proposed budget called for investing an extra $1 billion per year for the next 10 years in these programs. 

Yet, ultimately, Congress must find this funding.  Please call your Congressional delegation and urge them to make the needed investments in the child nutrition programs to ensure that our low-income kids get the nutrition they need to learn and excel during these tough economic times.  You can also use this easily adaptable letter to send to his/her office.

Protect National School Lunch Program funds!

As you may recall from comments CFPA made to USDA in 2008 and letters CFPA sent to Congress in 2009, we are committed to ensuring that funds appropriated by Congress to subsidize meals for low income students are actually spent on those meals.  Increased investments are needed to expand accessibility to the programs and to improve the nutritional quality of meals served – but those investments must be targeted toward the low-income students who qualify for subsidized meals and who come from families with the greatest need for the subsidy.

Two recent studies of several data sets, surveys, and interviews indicate that funds for free and reduced-price meals may be subsidizing competitive foods sales and meals served to higher-income students who do not qualify for the free or reduced-price meal.  These higher-income students are considered to be in the “paid” category and are supposedly charged the "full price" of the meal.  However, the findings conclude that:

(a) competitive foods prices are often artificially low, because the revenue to the district doesn’t subtract a variety of costs incurred by the food services program to prepare and service competitive foods, and

(b) paid meal prices are generally far below the cost of producing and serving the meals, with the difference coming from the funds provided by USDA for the free and reduced price meals.

The two reports are the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Who Benefits From Federal Subsidies of Free and Reduced Price Meals? and the Campaign for Better Nutrition’s Flunking School Lunch.  

What should Congress do in response to these findings?  It should enact policies to better target reimbursement to free and reduced meals and curtail competitive foods and a la carte sales.

January 2010

New Presentation:  Presentation on Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Priorities to CA School Nutrition Association Conference, January 2010 - CFPA had the opportunity to share our priorities on improving school nutrition at the recent California School Nutrition Association, attended by thousands of school food service professionals from across the Golden State.  Click here to view our presentation.

Action Item!  Click here for an easily adaptable letter template to send to your Congressmembers urging them to make much needed investments to improve the child nutrition programs. 

The Senate Agriculture Committee and House Education and Labor Committee may pass their Child Nutrition Reauthorization bills this winter or early in the spring. Quick action might be needed in order to make improvements before the current budget resolution expires in March. After March, the cost estimates of program expansions and improvements will be higher so even more new money will be required.
 
This is the most critical time for YOU to let your Congress members and their staff know what are the most powerful changes Congress can make to improve nutrition in your community. Over the past two years, CFPA has posted survey data, reauthorization priorities from a variety of California stakeholders, and our communications with Congress.  

Key Message for Congress: More Funding!
 
Given recent evidence of increased rates of hunger during the recession and the hunger studies to be released by food banks on February 2nd, the paramount role of the Child Nutrition Act must be to provide more – and better – nutrition to needy children, particularly the lowest-income children, who are eligible but not participating in child nutrition programs.
 
Congress must increase investments in the child nutrition programs. In order to make the improvements in benefits, accessibility, and meal quality that California families need, Congress must identify new funding, either through a higher budget allocation or through budgetary offsets within the authorizing committees or revenue committees.
 
Please call your Representative and urge him or her to make the needed investments in the child nutrition programs to ensure that our low-income kids get the nutrition they need to learn and excel during these tough economic times.
 
How to best invest any new resources?
 
CFPA provided testimony to the House Education Committee in October 2009 to describe the enormous value of expanding enrollment and participation through providing free meals to more low income students. CFPA also proposes that Congress should fund free meals to all students in schools with high concentrations of low-income students. In California alone, nearly 1000 schools with nearly 600,000 students might benefit from this change.
 
The Hunger Free Schools Act includes these important changes that will make a significant, measurable difference in providing free meal benefits to needy students. This analysis from CFPA estimates that over one million low-income California students will benefit if direct certification is expanded as part of the upcoming Child Nutrition Reauthorization legislation. In addition, this report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains opportunities to expand direct certification.
 
Other legislative proposals introduced in Congress that CFPA is excited to see under discussion include:
 
- Universal Classroom Breakfast Act: creates a federal grants program modeled on the California Department of Education’s incentives to expand participation in the severely underutilized School Breakfast Program.
 
- Ensuring Year-Round Access to Meals and Snacks: expands the California snack pilot nationwide and offers additional reimbursement to serve meals at community programs.

CFPA Applauds New IOM Report, Urges USDA to Act Quickly

On October 20, 2009, the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Food and Nutrition Board released the much anticipated report, School Meals: Building Blocks for Heathy Children, with recommendations to improve meal patterns and nutrient standards for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.

The report proposes a significant overhaul in the way in which school breakfast and lunch meals are planned, prepared, and served. The IOM committee proposes to bring the meal planning process, menus, and nutrients into line with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans to ensure that students receive optimal nutrition at schools and learn healthy habits for life.  

“This is an extraordinary report that outlines a path towards nourishing meals that students will eat," said Kenneth Hecht, executive director of Calfornia Food Policy Advocates (CFPA).  "We call on USDA to implement these recommendations soon, so that students in California and across the country can benefit from improved menus and meals.”

Matthew Sharp, senior advocate with CFPA, presented recommendations to the IOM committee at the National Academy of Sciences in January, many of which were adopted in the final report.

Given that public attention to the quality of school lunches is very high, media coverage of the nutrition standards has been intense. Here are a few noteworthy stories from National Public Radio and the Los Angeles Times.

What You Can Do: 

• Urge your Congressmember to ask USDA to take quick action to bring the benefits of better nutrition to students across the country.  

• Learn more about the innovative ways to improve nutrition in schools.

• Stay updated on breaking news by signing up to receive our Nutrition Action Newsletter.  

Resources from CFPA

Presentation on Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Priorities to CA School Nutrition Association Conference, January 2010

Direct Certification (DC) and Direct Verification (DV) - Direct Certification and Verification are key resources for easily and efficiently enrolling and verifying eligible students for school meals.  Strengthening and expanding DC and DV in the upcoming reauthorization is a high priority.  Here are a few useful resources:

-CFPA Report: There IS such a thing as a Free Lunch: Effective direct certification and direct verification to ensure adequate nutrition for California's children

Executive Summary

Full Report

-CFPA Testimony on DC in US House Education Committee

CFPA's Matt Sharp was invited to testify in Congress on strengthening and expanding DC.  Click here to read his testimony or here to watch a video of his testimony.

-CFPA Analysis: Number of Students in California who would benefit from expaned direct certification

-Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Report: Analayzes data from USDA on opportunities to expand direct certification.

CFPA Testimony on CACFP in Senate Agriculture Committee - Ken Hecht, Executive Director of CFPA, provided testimony on improving CACFP.  Click here for a link to the archived video.  Ken's part begins around 1:30:00 into the video.  You can also read his written testimony, which provides a more thorough overview of the issues and recommendations than the oral remarks.

Memo from CFPA to CA's Congressional Delegation - Click here to read a memo CFPA sent to California's Congressional delegation with a detailed list of policy proposals.

One-Page Summary of CNR Priorities (Updated 1/21/10) - A two-sided document with one side including statistics on what's at stake for California and the other side summarizing recommendations for improvement.

Federal Register Comments (Posted 10/24/08) - CFPA's written comments to USDA on priorities for reauthorization

Top Ten Summer Lunch Fixes (Posted 8/21/08) -  CFPA's list of the top ten changes Congress should make to strengthen summer nutrition.

Testimony by CFPA's Matt Sharp at USDA's Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Listening Session in San Francisco (Posted 8/20/08)

Testimony by CFPA's Kumar Chandran at USDA's Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Listening Session in San Francisco (Posted 8/20/08) - provided on behalf of the Western Region Anti-Hunger Consortium

CFPA's Priorities for Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization 2009 (Released 8/8/08) - This document provides details on potential opportunities for the upcoming reauthorization.

Child Nutrition Reauthorization 2009 Preview Fact Sheet (Released 3/08) - This two-page fact sheet discusses why these programs are important to low-income children and also provides a preview of a tentative outline of recommendations for certain issue areas.  The recommendations may change and may sharpen.  Stay tuned for more resources in the coming months.

Useful Links, Reports, and Research

Reauthorization Recommendations from California Partners

Click here for the Child Care Food Program Roundtable's reauthorization recommendations.

Click here for the California WIC Association's reauthorization recommendations.

"The Economics of a Healthy School Meal", A Report in Choices, from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association
- Summary from web: Is it economically feasible to serve healthy food in school? To address this question, think of school food service operations as not-for-profit businesses. It is possible, though challenging, to design policies that would improve school meals without violating the economic rules under which these businesses must operate.

Program Participation Data by State

USDA Cost of Serving School Meals Study – April 2008

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' Overview of USDA Report on Payment Errors in School Meals
- This report is a must-read to get smart on the issues surrounding school lunch applications, benefits, certification, verification and reimbursement claims.

CFPA: "The Federal Child Nutrition Commodity Program: A Report on Nutritional Quality"

- This report provides an analysis of the nutritional impact of USDA's commodity foods on school meals.

CFPA's “Running On Empty” School Breakfast report
- This report provides a useful template of how to profile access and participation in school breakfast in your state.

Food Research and Action Center’s 2007 School Breakfast Scorecard
- This is the definitive catalogue of state-by-state participation and access data.

USDA Study on School Meals Compliance with the 1995 Dietary Guidelines – November 2007
- An excellent overview of the lack of progress towards improving nutrient quality in school meals

USDA Rural Summer Pilot Study

CA Child Care Food Program Roundtable – 2008 Policy Recommendations
- This document provides a good overview of the key problems and fixes to strengthen the child care food program.

National WIC Association

California WIC Association

CFPA's Resources for Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization from 2003-4

Survey

CFPA has completed our survey on CNR (that we also shared with our Western region partners) to help us come up with a set of recommendations with widespread support and popular appeal.

Click here for a summary of survey results.

Although the survey is now closed, click here to view a copy of what we asked in the survey.