Food Quality & Obesity

The national epidemic of overweight and obesity includes children and adults of all incomes. The federal food programs, particularly school meals, can help address the impact of this crisis on low-income families. CFPA’s Food Quality Team advocates for public policies that maximize the obesity-prevention potential of the federal food programs. 

News                                                         Research & Reports 

State & Federal Advocacy                   Press

Local Action                                            Online Resources

News

In the Midst of Obesity Fight, Many School Meals Fail Fat Test. Governor Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance Opposes Legislation Giving Nutrition Information, Including Information on Fat, to Parents. Click here for the press release, county data, a Parent Tool Kit and more!

New Tool to Help Schools Improve Nutritional Quality. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has developed a new free and on-line School Foods Tool Kit to help improve the nutritional quality of food available to students. 

Governor Davis signs SB 65 (Torlakson), which will require school districts to provide parents with the opportunity to learn about and offer public comment on contracts for non-nutritious foods and beverages.  This bill promotes accountability to families and communities for the nutritional quality of the food and drinks sold on school campuses statewide.  For more information, please contact Jessica Reich at jreich@cfpa.net or (415) 777-4422 x 129.

Soda Ban Success!  Many thanks to those who took the time to call and write in support of SB677 (Ortiz), which now eliminates sodas from elementary schools, restricts their sale in middle school and sets standards for all beverages sold in these schools.  

A lesson in nutrition at Los Angeles Unified School District. LAUSD's Nutrition Network is getting students to eat healthier foods at school and at home through their federally-funded Harvest of the Month program, which distributes 6,000-8,000 crates of fresh fruit and vegetables to 236 schools monthly.  Read this Los Angeles Times article for details.  Click here to read about their request for stricter guidelines for nutritional standards.  

Evaluation of the Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program: Report to Congress.  See this early review of the pilot (released May 8, 2003) that shows how almost all participants consider the program to be very successful.

State & Federal Advocacy  

The Pupil Nutrition, Health and Achievement Act strengthens nutritional standards in elementary schools and eliminates meal-time sodas in middle schools.

• Read a fact sheet about the law and needed next steps
• Read frequently asked questions for more in-depth information
• Sign on to support CFPA's 2003 State Legislative Agenda
• Click here for legislative information on SB19
• See CFPA's Testimony at the Senate Childhood Obesity Hearing (1.31.01)

Child Nutrition Reauthorization: Extend the USDA's authority to set nutritional standards for all food sold throughout a school during the whole school day.

• Read a fact sheet about this issue
• Sign on to support FRAC's Call to Congress
• See CFPA's Child Nutrition Reauthorization recommendations

Click here for CFPA's positions on selected food quality-related bills introduced in the California Legislature.

Local Action

San Francisco USD Joins Board By Banning Junk Food.   San Francisco Unified School District has joined school districts in Oakland, Los Angeles and other California cities in limiting the sale of low-nutrition foods on campus to help prevent and address the epidemic of childhood overweight. The SFUSD policy, set to take effect next school year, would ban sodas and “unhealthy snacks” from the cafeteria. The school district is also exploring how to improve the nutritional value of the school lunches, as well as how to make up for the anticipated loss in revenue caused by the soda and snack ban. See coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle for details or the School Nutrition Professional newsletter.

Oakland Unified School District Proposed Nutrition Policy

Research and Reports  

From CFPA

• CFPA--"Neighborhood Groceries: New Access to Healthy Food in Low-Income Communities" (2003)
• CFPA--"Improving Meal Quality in California’s Schools: A best practices guide for health school food service" ((CFPA, revised 2003)

Background on Overweight & Obesity

• The Center on Hunger and Poverty and the Food Research Action Center (FRAC)--"The paradox of hunger and obesity in America"
• California Center for Public Health Advocacy--"An Epidemic: Overweight and Unfit Children in Assembly Districts"
• Center for Weight and Health--PowerPoint presentation on obesity
• Economic Research Service, USDA--The Diets of America's Children Influence of Dining Out, Household Characteristics, and Nutrition Knowledge
• Halting the Obesity Epidemic: A Public Health Approach  

Background on School Meals

• USDA--School Lunch Salad Bars
• School Dietary Assessment
• School meal participation and fruit and vegetable consumption  
• CalCHEEPS survey  
• Time spent eating lunch at school
• California School Food Finance Study

Background on Competitive Foods

The law and legal history around foods sold in competition with the school meal programs, see the following links:

• Occidental report

• Competitive foods report

• Current CA competitive foods law

• Fast Food Survey

• Commercial activities HEHS-00-156, September 8, 2000  

Policy Approaches

• Strategic Alliance to Prevent Childhood Obesity: A School-Community Approach (Join the Strategic Alliance to Prevent Childhood Obesity by clicking here!)

Soda Consumption

Ties between soda consumption and obesity, and current California law regarding exclusive beverage contracts with schools, please check out the following links:

• Liquid Candy – CSPI
• Soda consumption

  Press (passwords not necessary, hit cancel) 

• K-12 at a Crossroads: One schools' uncanny success with junk food ban (SF Chronicle, 4/4/03)
• New York City schools cut down on fats and sweets in menus (NY Times, 6/25/03)

• Junk Food: S.F. School District Considers Ban (SF Chronicle, 1/14/03)

• Junk Food Wars (Sacramento Bee, 11/14/02)

• School Teach the 3 C's: Cookies, Candy, Chips (New York Times, 9/24/02)

• Growing up too fat - Kids suffer adult ailments as more become dangerously obese
  (San Francisco Chronicle, 5/12/02)

• Making schools healthier can cut obesity (United Press International, 7/25/02)  

• Supersize Country  (Washington Post, 12/14/01)

• Coca Cola Rethinks Soda Sales in Schools (USA Today 3/14/01)

• The Lure of Snacks (San Gabriel Tribune, 2/11/01)  

• Souped Up School Food (SF Chronicle Article, 2/7/01) 

• Nutrition, Obesity and Perception (AP 1/9/01)

Online Resources

• California Center for Public Health Advocacy's PowerPoint presentation addressing policy approaches to the obesity epidemic at the National Conference of State Legislators
• American School Food Services Association
• California Center for Public Health Advocacy (Assembly district data on fitness & health)
• California Department of Education, Food and Nutrition Services
• California Healthy Kids Survey
• California School Food Services Association
• Center for Disease Control--Obesity
• Fit WIC
• Strategic Alliance
• Tufts Nutrition Navigator
• United States Department of Agriculture

For additional information, contact Jessica Reich, Director of Food Quality Policy, at (415) 777.4422 x 129 or jreich@cfpa.net.