Changing up school meals

The Washington Post's Sally Squires has a report this morning about changes in the USDA's guidelines for school meal programs, and the extra step Sen. Tom Harkin wants to take to regulate food and beverages outside the cafeteria. The story notes that the USDA's farm bill proposal will require schools to bring their cafeteria menus into compliance with the 2005 U.S. dietary guidelines.

From the story:

The USDA is proposing to spend $6 million to provide guidance and technical assistance to school food professionals to bring cafeteria meals in line with the latest guidelines.
"This is the first time that the USDA -- and Congress -- have addressed the nutrition standards for school meals in a while," said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group. "They should have done this the day that the 2005 Dietary Guidelines were issued because they knew what they were going to say . . . but they move at such a glacial pace that here it is a year and a half later, and the proposed regulations have not even come out."
Each year, the USDA provides 9 million breakfasts and 30 million lunches to students. Nearly 60 percent are served free or at a reduced price.
The 2005 update of the dietary guidelines made some of the biggest changes in recent years in urging greater consumption of whole grains, fruit, vegetables and nonfat dairy products, such as skim milk. Congress requires the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services to review the guidelines every five years.
Included in the farm bill are several large initiatives to increase schoolchildren's consumption of fruits and vegetables.
Numerous studies have shown that eating more fruit and vegetables, whether fresh, frozen, dried or canned, is linked to lower body weight, stronger bones, and lower risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. Yet national surveys show that only one in five Americans consumes the two cups of fruit recommended daily. Children under age 18 consume half or less of the recommended amounts.
The USDA proposes to spend $500 million in new, mandatory funding over the next 10 years for the purchase of additional fresh fruit and vegetables in school lunch and breakfast programs. The department also wants to shift $2.75 billion over the next 10 years to increase purchases of fruit and vegetables through its commodity programs -- a move that some said has little chance of success given the strong political forces likely to oppose such a change.
"Is Congress and the USDA going to have the political will to shift commodity purchases away from foods that children should eat less of, like meat, to fruit and vegetables, which children should eat more of?" asked Wootan. "The answer is that it will be very difficult."
Another nutrition initiative would expand nationwide a pilot program to provide fruit and vegetable snacks to schoolchildren. Created by legislation introduced by Harkin in 2002, the program now provides such snacks for free to students in 17 states and on three Indian reservations. It is supported by the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity, a coalition of more than 300 organizations .

TK: The USDA has done quite a bit to advance the cause of good nutrition with its farm bill proposals, but the job isn't done. Summoning the political will in Congress and in the agency to reshape federal commodity purchases toward fruits and vegetables should be prompted by the fact children under 18 consume less than half of recommended f/v servings; it won't be that easy, though.