Update on Child Nutrition Reauthorization

Important News from the Afterschool Alliance via the Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership: Child Nutrition Reauthorization Clears the SenateLate in the afternoon of August 5 the full Senate unanimously passed the bipartisan Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, legislation that reauthorizes the federal child nutrition programs. In addition to increasing access to healthful meals for the children that need them most, the bill includes a provision that expands the afterschool meal program to all 50 states. The bill also requires childcare providers participating in the Child and Adult Care Feeding Program (CACFP) to serve only low-fat or fat-free milk to children aged two and up, among other nutrition standards, and encourages physical activity. Of grave concern to the anti-hunger community is the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as a funding offset to pay for a portion of the child nutrition bill. Attention now turns to the House of Representatives, and whether Congress will be able to pass its version of Child Nutrition reauthorization legislation before the current programs expire on September 30, 2010.

Feed Your Children Well: A Child Nutrition Update

When I was a kid, I ate the “hot lunch” at school pretty much every day, and I liked it. From Tater Tot Casserole to Dagwood Sandwiches, tacos to pizza, my week was filled with meals that appealed to my child-sized taste for comfort food.
Fast forward 35 years, and now I’m sending my own kids off to school each day. And though the fare their schools provide is marginally better nutritionally speaking, we pack their lunches most days to ensure they get whole grains, lean protein, and a good dose of fruits and vegetables. It takes a little more time (my husband’s, since he is the kitchen god in our house), and probably costs a little more than the school lunch. But it’s better for them, and it helps them learn what a healthy meal looks like and develop healthy eating habits.
Yesterday, the House committee responsible for reauthorization of the federal Child Nutrition Act, led by Rep. George Miller of California, filed its version of the bill - the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act. The bill is a good step forward for kids like mine who have the occasional school lunch, but more importantly it is a critical step forward for the approximately 30 million children who benefit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program, which provides free and reduced lunch to low income children across the country. For too many children in food insecure families, this is the single full meal they can count on each day. The House proposal expands eligibility for the lunch program, makes it easier for children to access the program by streamlining the application process, and gives incentive grants to school districts to start healthy breakfast programs.
The legislation also takes steps to improve the nutritional value and safety of school lunches, increase nutrition education in schools, and connect schools to local food growers to improve the quality of the meals. For younger children who receive meals in child care settings, the proposal helps connect their caregivers to the WIC program to improve the nutritional quality of their meals, and makes it easier for home-based caregivers to enroll in the meal program.
As the school year winds down and some of us get ready to pack lunches for summer camp or serve up PB&J’s by the wading pool, it’s good to note that the proposed reauthorization bill takes one more important step. According to the Committee, it will provide year-round meals for over 225,000 children through school based and community based summer and after-school programs. For kids whose best meal of the day is their school lunch, the Summer Food Service Program is a very big deal.
Feeding our children is a basic part of being a parent, a family, a community, and a nation. The reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act is an opportunity to make sure we feed them all, and we feed them well. To speak up on child nutrition and school lunches, contact your Senator or Representative today by going here.
For more information about child nutrition in schools, visit the Food Research and Action Center, Let’s Move! or Farm to School.

Three Things You Can do Now to Help Kids and Families

It’s been a while since I’ve checked in with this blog, and I blame my tendency to over-think. I want to write about the most urgent issue, the most effective action you can take, to have the most positive impact on children and their families. But as we seem to be learning almost every day, neither politics nor the public policy they produce are perfect, and we can’t let that paralyze us. So here are three quick but important things you can do today to have a positive impact on children’s lives. Don’t think about them too much… just put one foot in front of the other (as Chris Kringle sings).

1) If you are part of an organization that serves children, the National Women’s Law Center is circulating a sign-on letter to be sent to the House and Senate for national, state, and local groups urging support of the Access to Nutritious Meals for Young Children Act of 2009, S. 2749 and H.R. 4402, introduced by Senator Gillibrand (D-NY) Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY). If your organization would like to sign on to the letter or if you want more information, please contact Rio Romero by close of business next Monday, January 25th. She can be reached at rromero@nwlc.org, or (202) 319-3056).

2) Check out the important work the National Center for Children in Poverty is doing around measuring poverty and understanding the financial struggles of children and their families. You can start by viewing and listening to NCCP’s webinar on Federal and Local Efforts to Modernize the Poverty Measure – an outdated and inadequate standard that’s used to allocate all types of public support, from Head Start to food assistance. From there you can explore NCCP's tools for advocates, practitioners, and administrators, including their Basic Needs Budget Calculator.

3) Finally, and perhaps most obviously and urgently, please -- if you haven't already -- make a donation to an organization that’s providing relieve in Haiti. With an estimated death toll of 200,000 the Haitian earthquake has certainly left many, many children without food, shelter, health care, and other basic needs. One organization that is doing great work to help them is Partners in Health.

There are so many more steps you can take to help children and families, but the most important thing is to get started. If you have other suggestions, please comment here. A belated happy New Year to all of you!

Policy News Families Can Use

Here are a few child and family policy-related nuggets from today’s news. How do they affect you and yours?

Health – The journal Pediatrics released 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health data yesterday that found that the rate of autism (also known as Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD) as reported by parents in the U.S. has increased to one in 100 children, up from a previous estimate of 150. The Centers for Disease Control web site backs that research up, and further expresses hope that “these new data might raise awareness about ASDs to help improve early identification and intervention and to provide information for policy and service planning.” According to an Associated Press story, some of the increase is being attributed to earlier diagnosis and a broader definition for Autism.

Education – Raising a current or future college student? The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is considering raising the amount allowed per student under Pell Grants, federally funded college tuition grants for low income students. Pell Grants are a critical support for low income students and their families because unlike student loans they do not leave graduates in debt. In a Philadelphia Inquirer story, Laura W. Perna, an associate professor at Pennsylvania State University Graduate School of Education, is quoted as saying that two-thirds of students who received Pell Grants in 2007-08 came from families who earned less than $30,000. She also cited recent studies finding that the grants covered “32 percent of the average cost of tuition and fees at four-year public colleges and universities nationwide in 2007-08, down from 50 percent a decade earlier.”

Food – The Center for Science in the Public Interest looked at Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data on illnesses caused by food, and found that these are the foods most likely to make you sick: leafy greens, eggs, tuna, oysters, potatoes, cheese, ice cream, tomatoes, sprouts, and berries. Unfortunately, the analysis did not include meat and poultry, because those are regulated by the Agriculture Department, and the Center only looked at FDA regulated foods, but some of the outbreaks included pathogens more commonly found in meat and poultry. Authors think there may be a link to large scale production and processing, so if you haven’t already you might want to get to know your local farmer. According to a Department of Health and Human Services article, Congress is considering a bill that would expand the FDA’s authority over food producers and make it easier to identify and remove tainted foods from grocery stores. In the meantime, eat your veggies but wash them well first!

The Soda Strategy for Healthier Kids

I’m not a purist. I try to be healthy, but I’ve had my share of soda addictions over the years. There was the Dr. Pepper-for-breakfast era in high school. Classic Coke in college. And anyone who sat in a conference room with me between 1995 and 2007 knows that diet Coke got me through many a long meeting. I’ve done my share to pay Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent’s salary. But honestly, I care more about children’s health and covering the cost of health care than I do about Kent’s efforts to give the world a Coke and a smile. So his Cold War era argument against President Obama’s proposal to tax soda to help pay some of the costs of health care reform, currently being considered by President Obama and Congress leaves me a bit, well, cold.

While speaking at the Rotary Club in Atlanta (home of Coca-Cola), he said, “I have never seen it work where a government tells people what to eat and what to drink. If it worked, the Soviet Union would still be around.” Choice of beverage caused the fall of the Soviet Union? That seems unlikely.
The fact is that we know children’s consumption of soda contributes to childhood obesity. And we know that the public is paying at least part of the costs of treating that childhood obesity and the diseases related to it, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. When a public health problem becomes not just a belt-buster but a budget buster, it’s time for government to step in.
The federal government has a couple of policy options to lower children’s soft drink consumption. One strategy is public education, and that is obviously important. It can reach children directly, compete with the Mountain Dew ads on TV, and create a culture in which the behavior is less accepted. Education has been an effective part of the efforts to keep kids from smoking and using drugs. (Remember this ad?)

But the evidence seems to show that these campaigns work best in combination with attempts to make it harder to purchase the substance of choice – making them more expensive (yes, through taxes) or banning them entirely. So the second strategy government can use is to target the purse strings of the primary purchasers of sugary sodas (parents) and make it less attractive to fill their shopping carts with two-liter bottles of Yoo-hoo.
A soda tax is likely to decrease soda drinking among adults and children alike, and that can only be good for public health. But to the extent folks keep buying Coke, the tax has another benefit. Those revenues can be set aside to help pay the costs of the health problems the children and adults who continue to drink soda are likely to develop. In policy terms, that’s a win-win.
There is another criticism to the soda tax and other “sin taxes” like it. Some are concerned that such taxes are regressive – that is, that they demand more from lower income tax payers who can afford it least. One study of New Yorkers did in fact find a relationship between soda consumption and lower household income. But even if that is true nationally, soda addiction is not nearly as strong as tobacco addiction or alcohol addiction. People have choices, and for the sake of kids’ health, they need to make smart ones. Maybe a soda tax will be the push they need to make better, healthier choices for healthier children.
To weigh in on the soda tax, contact your Senator or the White House today. For more information, visit the Campaign for Commercial Free Children, or (for a different point of view) the American Beverage Association.

You Too Can Be a Wonky Mom (or Dad)!

I love public policy. And I love my family. I was passionate about the former well before the latter came along. But not surprisingly raising children has intensified my desire to improve the world through lawmaking (or law changing), especially for kids and the people who care for them.

Those who know me in real life know that this divides my energy in many ways throughout a typical day. I’ve searched for child care for my infant daughter while researching the quality of child care for families in Boston. I’ve followed the health care debate on a day that I took my son to a well visit at his pediatrician’s office (covered by excellent health insurance, natch). I’ve read about the achievement gap, while reviewing my son’s state test scores. The resources and opportunities available to my children make me keenly aware of the challenges of families who aren’t so lucky, and that drives my desire to learn more, and do more to improve the public policies that impact them every day.

I’m blessed with a great network of frolleagues who lead similar professional and personal lives. I can’t list them all here, but you know who you are, and you each inspire me every day. I will give a special shout out to my friend who recently mentioned the challenge of trying to follow health care reform for Results while losing sleep to her son’s teething.

Here’s the thing parents– even if you don’t have a policy degree and have never set foot in the halls of Congress, you too can be a Wonky Mom or a Wonky Dad! It is my greatest hope and desire that if this blog does nothing else it challenges other parents out there to recognize that the world of public policy interacts with their homes, their neighborhoods, their schools and their communities every day. And, more importantly, that they have a role to play in shaping it, not just for themselves but for all the other families out there like them.

To help you get started, here are a few issues that are already underway in Washington, and some resources to help you step up and speak up. I’m leaving health care off the list because I’ve written about that recently, but feel free to check out my earlier posts.

Student Loans for College - H.R. 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 passed the house last night. Besides setting up the Early Learning Challenge Fund for quality child care and early education, it also shifts college student loans from private financial institutions to the federal government. Proponents say that cutting out the middle man will save money for families borrowing for college. Opponents say it’s a government take over. What do you think? Let your Senator know, because that's where that bill goes next!

Child Nutrition – The federal laws that help children have access to healthy food are due to be renewed by Congress this year. According to the Food Research and Action Center, this reauthorization (for definitions of words used in Congress, go here) will include the School Breakfast and Lunch programs, Summer Food, Child and Adult Care Food (provides food in child care settings) and WIC (Women Infant and Children) programs. You can learn more and sign up for email updates at FRAC’s web site.

No Child Left Behind – This is the nickname for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also up for renewal this year, which sets federal policy for public schools with students grades K-12. If you have kids in school, this is the source of the requirement for standardized testing (MCAS in Massachusetts) beginning in 3rd grade. As it makes its way through reauthorization, policy makers, educators, and yes, parents, should speak up about standardized testing, teacher training and qualifications, charter schools, expanded early learning, and federal funding. Our kids spend at least six hours a day in their schools – let’s make them count!

These are just a few of the family friendly issues facing legislators this year. Ready to become a Wonky Mom or Wonky Dad? Visit one of the sites below to get started (and of course it won’t hurt to follow this blog and @childfampolicy on Twitter!).

• Results is a great grassroots organizing network that will help you learn to speak up and give you the information you need to be effective. Tell Meredith I sent you – and that I hope she got some sleep last night!


• The National Women’s Law Center works on issues affecting women and girls. I especially love their Family Economic Security team!


• MomsRising makes it easy and fun with easy to understand updates and fun to use techie organizing tools!

Good luck with your good work! Let me know how it goes on your journey to Wonkdom!