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National Call to Congress: It’s Time to Reinvest in Our Child Nutrition Programs

Congress has a unique opportunity this year in the child nutrition reauthorization law to ensure that millions of children, particularly low income children, have improved access to nutritious food in school (through breakfast and lunch programs), during out-of-school time (in afterschool and summer programs), in preschool child care, in homeless and domestic violence shelters, and at home (through the WIC program).

These successful nutrition programs are playing an ever larger role in helping children achieve access to quality child care and educational and recreational programs, and in improving children’s development, health and achievement. Funding for these programs, however, has not kept pace with these additional demands.

Modest investments in nutrition programs will strengthen nutrition, reduce hunger, and benefit other priority programs that improve our children’s well-being. They also have positive effects on bringing down other public and private costs in the health, education, and other systems, so new child nutrition investments are wise uses of public funds. We therefore call on the Administration and Congress to take two critical steps: 1) allocate in the budget sufficient new funds to modernize, expand participation in, and improve nutrition quality in the child nutrition programs; and; 2) enact a reauthorization bill that achieves these goals. With well-funded and targeted new investments, Congress can accomplish a range of important national priorities. High priority examples include:

# Supporting the goal of giving every child an equal opportunity to succeed in school. Numerous studies show that school breakfast has positive effects on hunger, nutrition, classroom behavior, test scores, grades and school attendance. Through a targeted expansion of universal breakfast programs, where all children receive breakfast at no charge, we can ensure that more low-income and other children begin the day with the nutrition they need to succeed.

# Supporting the goal of giving working families access to nutritious food for their children in safe and nurturing environments in preschool child care, after school and during the summer. Through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), the Summer Food Service Program and the School Lunch Program, sponsors are offering snacks and meals combined with enriching recreational and educational out-of-school time activities. Oftentimes it is the food that brings children to the programs in the first place. CACFP also provides essential nutrition and quality monitoring for preschoolers in child care. Current area eligibility guidelines for all these programs leave many low-income families without access, especially in rural areas. These guidelines need to be broadened to serve more children in low-income communities. In addition, suppers should be made available in afterschool programs in low-income areas to provide food and supervision as more parents work and commute long hours.

# Supporting the development of healthy eating habits that help to prevent childhood obesity and other nutrition-related diseases. The child nutrition programs present important opportunities for positive modeling of healthy nutrition, from birth through the teen years, through the WIC Program, School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, CACFP, and afterschool snacks and suppers. Promoting optimal child health can be achieved in a number of ways, including: enhancing reimbursements to support schools and sponsors in their efforts to improve meals and snacks; increasing children’s access to fruits and vegetables, whole grains and low fat dairy products; assuring the nutrition quality of foods sold in schools in competition with the school meal programs; and increasing funding for nutrition education that teaches children how to make healthy lifelong choices.

# Supporting full utilization of the programs that provide America’s children with nutritious meals. Current unnecessary paperwork often keeps potential sponsors and schools from participating in the programs. The programs should be made administratively easier for sponsors to operate and for families to access. For example, legislation lifting paperwork burdens in the Summer Food Program sponsored by Senator Lugar and initiatives from USDA have attracted more sponsors and children. These improvements should apply nationwide to all sponsors. Also, special help should be available where there are special start-up problems or access barriers (e.g., transportation problems). In addition, eligibility for nutrition program sponsorship should be automatic for sponsors already receiving other federal program funds, including other nutrition programs. For example, sponsors should not have to file two separate applications for summer and afterschool food.

In 1946, Congress passed the National School Lunch Act as a "measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation's children and to encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities." Since then, Congress has wisely improved the child nutrition programs to better serve children and families and adjust to changes in our families, workplaces, schools and communities. The goals of the 2003 child nutrition reauthorization equally must be to strengthen the nation and our children’s health and well-being.