NO KID HUNGRY:

PROPOSAL
Welcome Back
to School

Abigail Fuelling
Professor Jorgensen
English 2010
April 8, 2018

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The mission statement

was simple, "No child should
go hungry in America, but one
in six kids will face hunger this
year. Using proven, practical
solutions, No Kid Hungry is ending childhood hunger today by ensuring
that kids start the day with a nutritious breakfast, eat healthy summer
meals, and families learn the skills they need to shop and cook on a budget.
When we all work together, we can make sure kids get the healthy food they
need. You can help surround kids with healthy food where they live, learn
and play" (Charity Navigator).

With a new
administration in
the office, it will
bring new changes,
not all of them good and not all of them bad. President Trump’s
administration is looking to remove what they view as burdensome
regulations on food policy; such as school lunch and calorie labels on the
menus (NPR. May 2, 2017). Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced
a plan to delay a mandate that requires schools to further reduce the levels
of sodium in the school lunches they serve. In addition, Agriculture
Secretary Sonny Perdue wants to give to schools the opportunity to make
the decision to serve some grains in school lunches that aren't whole-grain
rich (NPR. May 2, 2017). The Agriculture Secretary’s decision was cheered
by the School Nutrition Association (SNA) which represents school
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cafeteria administrators. The group had lobbied Congress for more

flexibility in applying federal nutrition standards (NPR. May 2, 2017). In
her statement, SNA CEO Patricia Montague explained the group was
"appreciative of Secretary Perdue's support of school meal programs in
providing flexibility to prepare and serve healthy meals that are appealing
to students" (NPR. May 2, 2017). While giving schools the ability to make
choices for their students is taking steps in right direction. Not regulating
school lunches properly to ensure children will have access to nutritionally
adequate and safe foods to help them live, learn and play as they deserve is
a problem with long term affects. Organizations like Share Our Strengths,
No Kid Hungry and politicians alike should be looking at the facts and
research to make the right
JSTOR Daily (1) decisions for schools, parents
and most importantly the
students.

During President Obama’s administration our first lady, Michelle

Obama was the champion of "The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act." The Act
included the following provisions which the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) implemented:
- Upgrading nutritional standards for school meals by increasing
the federal reimbursement rate for school lunches by 6 cents for
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districts who comply with federal nutrition standards. This is

the first real reimbursement rate increase in over 30 years.
- Improving the nutritional quality of all food in schools by
providing USDA with the authority to set nutritional standards
for all foods sold in schools, including in vending machines, the
"a la carte" lunch lines, and school stores.
- Increases the number of eligible children enrolled in the school
meals programs by using Medicaid data to directly certify
children who meet income requirements without requiring
individual applications connecting approximately 115,000 new
students to the school meals program.
- Enhances universal meal access for eligible children in high
poverty communities by eliminating paper applications and
using census data to determine school wide income.
- Provides more meals for at-risk children nationwide by allowing
Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) providers in all
50 states and the District of Columbia to be reimbursed for
providing a meal to at-risk children after school paving the way
for an additional 21 million meals to children annually.
- Empowering parents by requiring schools to make information
more readily available to parents about the nutritional quality
of school meals, as well as the results of any audits.
- Improving the quality of foods supplied to schools by building
on and further advancing the work USDA has been doing to
improve the nutritional quality of the commodities that schools
get from USDA and use in their lunch and breakfast programs.
(USDA.gov)
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The news of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s plan sparked

outrage of many nutrition and child-welfare advocates who see these
changes as a complete recension of the reforms accomplished by our former
first lady Michelle Obama (NPR. May 2, 2017). Howell Wechsler, the CEO
of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, which has worked with more
than 35,000 schools to implement healthier meal standards, explained in a
statement, "We would not lower standards for reading,
writing and arithmetic just because students found them
challenging subjects, and we should not do it for school
nutrition either" (NPR. May 2, 2017). In addition, Ken Cook,
president of the Environmental Working Group, said in his statement.
"Just because children would rather eat heavily salted,
processed foods at school doesn't mean they should. The
president's fondness for Big Macs and KFC is well
known, but we shouldn't let Colonel Sanders and
McDonald's run the school cafeteria" (NPR. May 2, 2017).

Starting the
school lunch reform
has been very much
needed for a
longtime. In a 2014
poll by the Pew
Charitable Trusts and other organizations favoring the Obama childhood
health initiatives found that seventy-two percent of parents favor some kind
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of nutritional standards for school meals. Crystal Fitzsimons with the Food
Research & Action Center explained "It does take time to get kids
to change their habits, but it's an important shift" (Weekly
Standard).
In the past the school lunch program has not seen many changes;
most strides didn’t take place till far after the administration of Eisenhower
and Nixon. The administration increased the budgets for school lunch
programs while the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 added more subsidies for
low-income children, as well as school milk and school breakfast programs
(Time.com). In 1981, the
No Kid Hungry (1)
Reagan administration
slashed Federal school lunch
spending by $1.5 billion and
attempted to make up for the
reduced budget by shrinking
lunch portions, reducing the
number of poor children
eligible for the free or
reduced-lunch, while also
famously declaring that
ketchup was a vegetable in order to meet nutrition standards (Time.com).
The problems that arose for the school lunch program from the Reagan
administration were obvious. Hundreds of thousands of children were
suffering and did not have much control over what was happening in their
lives. It is vital that we remember that we are the adults in their world and
we can truly show kids that we care about their futures.
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With less federal support continuing, school lunches in the 1980s and
1990s became increasingly privatized and nutrition standards often took a
back seat to the bottom line. This same period saw childhood obesity rates
in the United States skyrocket (Time.com). School lunches were sent to the
forefront of the debate over healthy kids. Kelly Brownell, director of Yale
University's Center for Eating and Weight Disorders explained "If
nothing changes, a generation will be having heart
bypasses by the time they're 25. The school cafeteria is a
toxic food environment" (Time.com). Economics drives school
nutrition, schools break even on the 27 million federally subsidized meals
they serve each day, with most receiving a paltry $2.14 for each free meal,
which is hardly enough to pay for equipment, labor or fresh produce
(Time.com). Consequently, while school meals meet most of the
government's nutritional requirements, fewer than 20% stay within the
limits for saturated fat (Time.com).

Currently No Kid Hungry is working within hundreds of local

communities to provide nutritionally adequate and safe foods for students.
Representatives of the No Kid Hungry organization explained, “We have
plenty of food in the United
No Kid Hungry (2)
States. And we have meal
programs that work. The
problem is that not enough
kids are able to access them”
(No Kid Hungry). With many
programs in the works to make
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their mission a reality, such as their School Breakfast Program, The

Summer Meals Program, The Afterschool Meals Program and Food Skills
Education Programs. Millions of kids in America face the school day on an
empty stomach because there isn't enough food at home (No Kid Hungry).
As parents and teachers know, hungry kids can't learn and unfortunately
No Kid Hungry’ s reach has only affected a handful of cities like Los
Angeles, Illinois, New York City, Dallas and New Orleans (No Kid Hungry).
The efforts of No Kid Hungry could have a greater impact if the
organization and more local communities reached out to their legislators
for support towards the school lunch reform.

In the year 2010, in

an attempt to return to
the original intentions of
school lunch programs,
Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which allows the
Department of Agriculture to overhaul school meals to meet new nutrition
standards. Those in favor of the reform claim simply that it’s working. A
2016 report declares that, in spite of the hubbub in cafeterias across the
country, the new act is indeed providing kids with healthier food at school
(Time.com). To give our students the best chance to live, learn and play as
they deserve we must adopt the practices that have already been set
forward by our first former first lady Michelle Obama in "The Healthy
Hunger-Free Kids Act." While integrating sodium and fat levels within a
more reasonable level to allow schools chefs to make school lunches more
palatable.
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Logistically
however President
Donald Trump's
budget proposal
would cut the U.S.
Department of
Agriculture by nearly 21 percent. The USDA is responsible for nutrition
programs in and out of schools, but how the cuts will play out in school
cafeterias isn't yet known (KPBS). Congress will try once more to pass Child
Nutrition Reauthorization legislation. The package of laws is supposed to
be re-upped every five years but hasn't made it out of a previously divided
Congress (KPBS).
While many tough questions lie ahead of organizations and
politicians alike some have simple solutions. No one can deny the
importance of better eating for growing minds, critics claim the prior
administration’s program has
produced unpalatable foods
that lead to food waste,
smaller earnings for school
lunch programs, and even
more kids are going without
lunch (Time.com). Bridget
O'Brien Wood, food service
director with Buffalo Public
Schools explained, “You have
to serve foods that Buffalo's
schoolchildren will eat, but in
No Kid Hungry (3)
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No Kid Hungry (4)

a way, that complies
with strict federal
nutrition standards
intended to combat
childhood obesity”
(Weekly Standard).
Those standards have
forced her and her
colleagues to get
creative and
unfortunately not all
attempts have worked. When they serve whole-grain spaghetti with meat
sauce, some students eat only the meat sauce. When they brought in a local
chef to prepare shepherd's pie that met the requirements by including
turnips and other root vegetables, most kids wouldn't touch it. Fruit, salad
bars, and potatoes have been hits. But other veggies, like oven-baked sweet
potato fries, are a tough sell because of clampdowns on sodium (Weekly
Standard). With a reform including both the provisions from "The Healthy
Hunger-Free Kids Act" and giving more leeway to school officials to provide
more palate pleasing meals, children will have access to nutritionally
adequate and safe foods to help them live, learn and play as they deserve.

School Lunch has not seen a truly

positive reform in years; it wasn’t until
the Great Depression that the Federal
government became involved in school
food programs. In the early 1930s,
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farmers were facing financial ruin thanks to price collapses, laborers were
having extreme difficulty finding work, and poor children were
experiencing increasing malnutrition and hunger. School lunch programs
emerged as the perfect solution to all three problems (Time.com).
Today however we are facing different problems. Students are not
receiving food, not receiving nutritionally adequate foods and or not
receiving foods that are safe for their growth and development. It is time for
schools, parents, organizations and politicians alike to put their focus on
the students and not on the bottom line. We can’t create a better future for
the nation when the future is sitting in a cafeteria everyday hungry and
alone. It’s time to take action and provide what is not only needed but
necessary. Share Our Strength’s, No Kid Hungry organization can make a
major impact in communities all across their country by sharing their
knowledge and resources with local schools, politicians and families. When
the mission is to help others in need everyone benefits. Getting involved in
the current political environment of food policy is the best way for No Kid
Hungry to make their mission a reality, surrounding kids with healthy food
where they live, learn and play.
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Aubrey, Allison. “More Salt in School Lunch, Less Nutrition Info on Menus:
Trump Rolls Back Food Rules.” NPR, NPR, 2 May 2017, www.npr.org
/sections/thesalt/2017/05/02/526448646/trump-administration-
rolls- back-obama-era-rules-on-calorie-counts-school-lunch.

Burks, Megan. “What's on The Menu for School Lunch Reform Under
Trump.” KPBS Public Media, KPBS Public Media, www.kpbs.org/
news /2017/mar/23/whats-menu-school-lunch-reform-under-
trump/.

Charity Navigator Staff Writers. “Rating for Share Our Strength.” Charity
Navigator, 28 Jan. 2018, www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay
=search.summary&orgid=4465.

Clemons, Sonya. “School Murals.” Pinterest, 26 Sept. 2015,

www.pinterest.com/pin/373587731568256187/.

Gershon, Livia. “Who Doesn't Like Healthy School Lunches.” JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR, 16 May 2017, daily.jstor.org/who-doesnt-like-healthy-
school-lunches/.

Kamerick, Megan. “Schools Will Soon Have to Put In Writing If They

'Lunch Shame'.” NPR, NPR, 17 Apr. 2017, www.npr.org/sections
/ed/2017/04/17/524234563/schools-will-soon-have-to-put-in-
writing-if-they-lunch-shame.

Mecia, Tony. “The Main Problem with School Lunches.” Weekly Standard,
The Weekly Standard, 13 Apr. 2017, www.weeklystandard.com/the-
main-problem-with-school-lunches/article/2007641.
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Rude, Emelyn. “School Lunch in America: An Abbreviated History.” Time,

Time, 19 Sept. 2016, time.com/4496771/school-lunch-history/.

Ryan, Erica. “Lawmaker's Childhood Experience Drives New Mexico's

'Lunch Shaming' Ban.” NPR, NPR, 11 Apr. 2017, www.npr.org/
sections/thesalt/2017/04/11/523312769/lawmakers-childhood-
experience-drives-new-mexicos-lunch-shaming-ban

Share Our Strength: No Kid Hungry Staff Writers. “Share Our Strength: No
Kid Hungry.” Share Our Strength: No Kid Hungry, Share Our
Strength: No Kid Hungry, 28 Jan. 2018, www.nokidhungry.org/.

United States Department of Agriculture Staff Writers. “Healthy Hunger-

Free Kids Act.” Food and Nutrition Service, United States
Department of Agriculture, www.fns.usda.gov/tags/healthy-hunger-
free-kids-act-0.