Tom Philpott at Grist:
Obama's proposed increase would boost the current daily per-lunch outlay by less than 20 cents -- not enough to buy an extra apple a day for every kid.Nutritionist Julie Negrin, M.S., writes at the daily table:
Now Blanche Lincoln (D.-Ark), the agribiz-friendly chair of the Senate Ag committee, has come out with her draft of the School Lunch Reauthorization Act. She may be calling it the "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act," but what she proposes doing is slashing Obama's proposed increase by more than half, to $4.5 billion over ten years.
If Obama can't spare an extra two dimes per day per kid to spend on ingredients, Lincoln won't even fork over a single extra dime. If Obama's proposal wouldn't even net an extra apple a day, Lincoln's would have trouble procuring a single stick of gum -- not that school kids need any more sugar.
And it gets worse. Because of Congress' "pay-as-you-go" rules, Lincoln has to balance her modest increase with cuts in other agricultural spending. Naturally, she has chosen to target conservation, hunger, and even other school-lunch programs -- leaving commodity payments, beloved of her state's large-scale cotton farmers, intact.
It’s bewildering to me why the government is hemming and hawing over how much money they should invest in CNR. It could be as low as a half a billion (which sounds like a lot but divide that by five years and millions of schools) and as much as $4 billion (which would be a miracle). When they give so little for each child’s school lunch, how can the school staff be expected to produce healthy, balanced meals for growing children? Even the most talented chefs I know would have a hard time coming up with a well-rounded meal appropriate for children if they only had a couple of bucks to spend per person. And had little to no kitchen equipment. And were given low-quality ingredients.In the new online magazine Agriculture from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), Craig Cox takes the Lincoln bill to task for pitting child nutrition against conservation programs.
In a critical miscalculation, she would cap the amount of money spent on the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to pay for the nutrition increase. EQIP, a program chronically underfunded and repeatedly targeted for cuts, helps ensure cleaner water, soil and air for the children in rural communities.
The senator would be much smarter to look to the bloated farm subsidy program.
A sad point is most children today have been trained since day one of school to eat these foods many are now questioning the nutritive qualities of. It will be a long hard road for teachers and parents trying to convince little Timmy to trade pizza Friday for fruits, greens and whole grains.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThe youth of today is the world’s future. India, at present, faces a variety of problems ranging from health issues to poverty.
ReplyDeleteAlso
Globally more than 173 Million people stood up against poverty and other goals ( MDG's) in 2009, a Guinness World Record!
Let us break this record in 2010!
Be the voice for the millions of poor people living across India.
It is Time for You to STAND UP AGAINST POVERTY NOW!
Join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/unmcampaignINDIA and check out the photo album section for the event pictures.
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/unmcampaignIND