Child Nutrition and
WIC
Reauthorization
Child Nutrition and
WIC
ReauthorizationThe 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.
February 2010
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.
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
-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 (Posted 4/23/09) - 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
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
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.
CFPA's Resources for Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization from 2003-4
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.