The Chicago Tribune’s Monica Eng has a good story on school lunch policy:

Most parents, administrators and legislators agree that the national lunch program is underfunded, forcing providers to serve cheap, often low-quality, foods. The system is also structured to let children’s preferences dictate the menu because if kids don’t take the lunches, the food providers get less money. Those things probably won’t change until Congress shapes the new rules for the Child Nutrition Act in the next few months.

At the meeting Hays attended, school food service directors showed a slide show on the mechanics of the National School Lunch Program, which involves an array of government agencies, funding structures and rules. It left them feeling “like this is so much bigger and confusing than we could have imagined,” Hays said.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., recently visited her granddaughter’s Evanston school to learn about the situation on the ground so she can help shape federal policy when Congress debates the nutrition act.

Nationally, $1 is spent on each child’s school lunch. If Barack Obama is successful in persuading Congress to spend $1 billion more for child nutrition, the figure jumps to a $1.30. Given the medical and social costs of obesity, diabetes and other nutrition-related diseases, increased funding would seem a slam dunk. So it will be interesting political theater to see what U.S. Senator obstructs such funding! Stay tuned.

Comment RSS - You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.