healthy food - HOUSE COMMITTEE WORKS ON CHILD NUTRITION BILL - SIBEJO

The House Education and Workforce Committee, on which Representative Stefanik serves, completed drafting its bill last week to reauthorize the Child Nutrition and Education Act. The bill, critics contend, contains a number of damaging provisions, including: shrinking coverage of the community eligibility provision and inadequately investing in the Summer Food Service Program and the Child and Adult Care Food Program. The bill would reduce access to the programs, water down nutrition quality, and increase administrative burdens on both schools and families, they say. ? ?This legislation also includes a three-state school meal block grant demonstration pilot to replace School Breakfast, Lunch and other school meal programs. The funding would be capped at the amount a state received for the programs and administrative funding in FY 2016. The pilot states would have broad discretion to:

• establish eligibility rules for free or reduced-price meals;
• decide the length or time of year that meals are provided;
• and abandon the current nutrition standards (meals are only required to be �healthy�).

Source: Food Research  & Action Council, 5/18/16, Child Nutrition Bill; Center for Budget & Policy Priorities, 5/17/16, Child Nutrition Bill II

healthy food - FOOD SELL-BY DATES CREATE WASTE - SIBEJO

There are no federal standards for expiration dates, except for baby formula, and best-by or sell-by date have no basis in science �they�re a manufacturer�s best guess for when the food is likely to be freshest or at peak quality. Some food products could last a year or a year and a half past their �sell by� date. Because many American consumers don�t know that they throw out a lot of perfectly good food. Recent surveys of over 1,000 American consumers found that one-third believe expiration labels are federally regulated. Sen. Richard Blumenthal has introduced legislation aimed at combating the issue of misleading expiration dates at the federal level. He would create a national standard for expiration dates, requiring labels to clearly distinguish between foods that reach their peak freshness by a particular date and foods that are unsafe to eat after a certain date. The bill would also make sure that food may be donated even if it has passed its peak freshness.

Source: Think Progress, 5/18/16, Sell-By Bill; Washington Post, 5/19/16, Expiration Dates

This drove me crazy all those years I worked in food banking - so many people throwing out perfectly good food because of a date printed on the package!

Gloria

healthy food - COMPARISON SHOPPING AT FARMERS MARKETS AND RETAIL STORES - SIBEJO

Prices for local food products are about the same at farmers markets � within a 10% price range � as at retail stores, and, for some foods, they are even less.  Local, certified organic products at farmers markets are almost alwayscompetitively priced with those at retail stores. These are just some of the findings from a recent project conducted in Vermont. Researchers compared the average prices of 55 products � such as produce, meat, poultry, and eggs � at 12 Vermont farmers markets and five retail stores.  They found that many items sold at farmers markets are similarly priced to those sold at traditional retail outlets.   For example:

• Prices for organic produce at farmers markets is competitive with retail establishments 92% of the time, including: apples, broccoli, carrots, chard, kale, lettuce, raspberries, summer squash, tomatoes, and zucchini.
• Produce identified as �local� at farmers markets is competitively priced with retail establishments 89% of the time, including: carrots, chard, garlic, lettuce, summer squash, tomatoes, and zucchini.
• �Local� meat at farmers markets is competitively priced with retail establishments 57% of the time, including: eggs, sirloin, and ham.

Source: USDA, 5/19/126, Comparison Shopping

healthy food - FARM STORAGE LOANS EXPANDED TO HELP FARMERS REACH LOCAL FOOD MARKETS - SIBEJO

USDA�s Farm Service Agency (FSA) announced in April that their Farm Storage Facility Loan program can now help finance portable storage structures, portable equipment, and storage and handling trucks in addition to continuing its longstanding capacity to finance stationary crop and cold storage on-farm facilities. This expansion of the low-interest loan program will help FSA better serve fruit and vegetable farmers and others who need to get crops safely and efficiently to local farmers� markets, schools, restaurants, food hubs, and retail stores.

The program also offers a new "microloan" option, which allows applicants seeking less than $50,000 to qualify for a reduced down payment of five percent and no requirement to provide three years of production history. Farms and ranches of all sizes are eligible. The microloan option is expected to be of particular benefit to smaller farms and ranches, and specialty crop producers who may not have access to commercial storage or on-farm storage after harvest. These producers can invest in equipment like conveyers, scales or refrigeration units and trucks that can store commodities before delivering them to markets.

healthy food - POVERTY IS TOXIC TO CHILDREN�S BRAINS - SIBEJO

Mounting evidence shows that children who grow up poor are more likely to be subjected to stresses like hunger and neglect that act like toxins and hijack the developing brain. In small doses, stress is normal, even helpful. But repeated exposures to adverse childhood experiences remake the architecture of a child�s developing brain, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, which is in charge of executive function and differentiating between good and bad, and the hippocampus, which handles memories and learning. Toxic stress can interact with other toxins like air pollution with consequences including cognitive deficits and emotional disorders, which in turn, help perpetuate disadvantage. There is evidence that children aren�t only affected by stress they experience directly, but by traumas experienced by their parents and grandparents. Some researchers have found evidence that these traumas are passed from parent to child.

Source: Mailman School of Public Health, 5/10/16, Toxic Stress

healthy food - USDA Official: Reauthorize Child Nutrition Programs So They Benefit Children - SIBEJO

Posted by Kevin Concannon, Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services

It may seem like common sense for child nutrition programs to benefit children, but some see it differently today.

Nationwide, schools have made the lunchroom a healthy environment. In fact, in only the second school year of full implementation of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA), over 98 percent of schools participating are already meeting the healthier meal standards.  Students are eating more fruits and vegetables during the school day and more low-income children are eating nutritious breakfasts and lunches at school. And data show obesity rates for some children are leveling off. With all the success of HHFKA, now is not the time to intentionally go backwards on nutrition standards in healthier school meals and to block access to these meals for millions of children.

In January, the Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously took a bipartisan step toward reauthorizing critical child nutrition programs like school lunch and breakfast. Rather than diminish the progress we�ve already made, the Senate�s bill ensures these improvements to our children�s diets will continue.  The bipartisan Senate bill represents a compromise that allows us to stop rehashing old debates and secures a healthier future for our kids. It represents a win for children, parents, schools, and our country�s future.

In contrast, the House Education and Workforce Committee�s bill aims to weaken one of the most successful aspects of HHFKA. The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which allows high-poverty schools or districts to serve all students free meals without any burdensome paperwork, has been lauded for increasing student participation, reducing administrative burdens and costs on schools, cutting down on paperwork for busy parents, and improving program integrity. But the House bill would place new limitations on the number of schools in high-poverty areas that qualify for CEP, forcing many high-poverty schools to lose eligibility. This would cause school meal participation to fall dramatically, and schools would be forced to spend more time on paperwork and less time focusing on feeding kids. And some children who need free meals may slip through the cracks.

The House bill would also roll back the school meal nutrition standards and gut the Smart Snacks in School rule, which ensures that all snack foods and beverages for sale to students during the school day are nutritious. Under the House bill, school vending machines could go back to selling soda and junk food.  Schools have already invested time and effort into making the switch to healthier options.  The snack food industry has innovated and developed hundreds of new products that meet the requirements and are popular with students.  Now is not the time to regress.

We are proud of the way the school meals program provides flexibility for schools to tailor the programs to their local needs. For example, schools design their own menus and have the ability to serve items they know their students prefer.  They can also choose options like CEP and serve afterschool snacks and suppers if they are the right fit for their local community. However, in the name of local flexibility, some are considering a proposal to convert the school nutrition programs into a block grant. That is a very dangerous idea. Not only would it put further strain on state and local school districts� budgets, but it would jeopardize children�s access to quality, healthy school meals no matter where they live.
Instead, we are working with schools and districts to ensure their programs meet their needs. One example is the Team Up For School Nutrition Success training. Along with the Institute of Child Nutrition, we offer all state agencies the opportunity to host local events to provide tailored technical assistance, support, and best practices for schools in administering successful meals programs. During the training, schools cover topics like menu planning, financial management, procurement, meal presentation and appeal, as well as youth engagement tactics and strategies to reduce plate waste. Schools have the opportunity to learn from each other in order to make positive strides toward providing healthy school environments with financial stability and strong student participation. With all these strides being made, now is not the time to eliminate the successful partnership between the federal government and state agencies, putting further strain on state and local school districts� budgets.

It would be unwise to roll back the school meal standards and I urge Congress to stay the course for sake of our children. USDA looks forward to working with Congress, schools, parents and communities to continue to improve the health and wellbeing of the next generation.

healthy food - �HEALTHY� TO GET NEW DEFINITION FROM FDA - SIBEJO

Salmon can�t actually be marketed as �healthy� under current FDA guidelines, despite being recommended as a good source of protein in the government�s most recent dietary guidelines. Pop-Tarts, on the other hand, are in the clear.

The labeling rules around �healthy� haven�t been revisited in over 20 years, even though our understanding of healthy eating habits has changed considerably since then. That�s why the FDA has announced that it will reevaluate the definition of �healthy,� seeking to bring labeling up-to-date with modern understanding and current science. Depending on the final rule, the change could have a huge impact on how food can be marketed to consumers.

Source: Think Progress, 5/11/16, Healthy Foods Redefined

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