NCHES
Education Policy
by JC Bowman
xibility for Child Nutrition
in Fiscal Year 2015 (Ag Secretary Perdue
Moves to Make School Meals Great Again).
It is essential that federal control over public
education be limited. Our policies should
empower states and local school districts
to have the ability to make menu planning,
food procurement, and contract decisions
for their meal programs. The United States
Department of Agriculture recognizes that
it takes food manufacturers “at least two
to three years to reformulate and develop
food products” to meet changing standards,
a process that involves “innovation of new
products, product research and development,
testing, commercialization, launch, and
marketing.” In addition, there are challenges
of “developing technologies to help overcome
consumers’ sensory barriers” and worth
noting there is a “low level of demand for these
products outside of the school audience.” In a
diverse country, it is expected children would
have different tastes and children would have
different nutritional needs. These decisions
are better determined at the state and local
level, and not in Washington DC.
For example, examine the issue of milk
consumption where the federal government
mandated that children in the breakfast or
lunch
program
could only receive
non-fat, skim milk.
However, a recent
study of preschool-
aged
children
published in the
Archives of Disease
in Childhood, a
sister publication of
the British Medical
Journal,
finds
that 1%/skim milk
drinkers had higher
BMI z scores
than 2%/whole
milk drinkers. To be clear, previous federal
mandates may have increased obesity in
children rather than having the desired effect
of slimmer and healthier kids. It would have
been better policy if the federal government
had issued suggested guidelines on any
recommendation that lacked rigorous data
to support its guidelines. Certainly, more
definitive studies are needed on the subject
matter.
America’s nutrition safety net is critical for
children and families across the nation. It is
important to keep the bar high when it comes
to serving nutritious food in our schools.
However, unelected and often unaccountable
bureaucrats in Washington DC should never
exercise more power over states and local
schools in determiWWning the needs and
priorities of the communities they serve.
School lunches/student nutrition are not
partisan issues, nor should they be allowed
to become one. The public can offer written
comments on this interim final rule; comments
must be received on or before January 29,
2018. This can be done online or by contacting
Tina Namian, Chief, School Programs Branch,
Policy and Program Development Division,
Food and Nutrition Service, 703-305-2590.
JC Bowman is the Executive Director of
Professional Educators of Tennessee.