Give SNA money to promote nutrition and sell Poptarts to your kids

The School Nutrition Association (formerly American School Food Service Association) is one of the most powerful lobbies on behalf of school food programs. It also protects the interest of the programs' operators, which sometimes conflicts with the interests of the programs' clients, our children. Here's a good example. The association's most recent news update page links to its new 2005 legislative agenda, which asks Congress to appropriate a modest additional 50 cents per enrolled child per year, for the implementation of nutrition promotion programs. In principle, I'm all for this, but wait a minute.... Meanwhile, the same announcement page includes the following advertisement:

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Pop-Tarts® help you-and kids-start the day right.Serve something kids, moms and school administrators love. Pop-Tarts deliver more vitamins and minerals with less fat than many breakfast items. For school breakfasts, Pop-Tarts® pass every test. [Learn More]

The association should remove this junk food ad from its website, and especially the misleading nutrition mumbo jumbo for a sugary snack that may displace healthier food choices at breakfast. I will check back in a month. If the ad is still there, I'll post again suggesting we all write Congress and say the School Nutriton Association cannot be trusted with that extra 50 cents for children's nutrition education. As a taxpayer and parent, I think SNA's constituency should ask for our money for nutrition education, or their money for nutrition education, but no double-dipping!