by Allison Micarelli-Sokoloff
June 22, 2010

Earlier this month, Congress unveiled new legislation to provide children with year-round access to healthier foods. The “Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010”—a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee; U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities; U.S. Rep. Todd Russell Platts (R-PA), ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities; and other lawmakers—is the next step toward fulfilling President Obama’s mission to end child hunger in America by 2015.

If passed, the bill (companion legislation to the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010” which was introduced in April) will give all children access to nutritious meals, improve the quality of meals children eat both in and out of school and in child care settings, implement new school food safety guidelines, and, for the first time, establish nutrition standards for food sold in schools.

For millions of children, the food offered at school or in child care is their only chance for a healthy meal throughout the day. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, as of 2008, more than 49 million Americans, including more than 16 million children, live in households that experienced hunger more than once during the previous year. But it’s not just about getting enough to eat; it’s about getting the right stuff to eat, too. U.S. children currently receive 50 percent of their daily calories from added fats and sugars, and due to obesity-related health issues, are predicted to be the first generation of kids to die at a younger age than their parents. Nationally, one-third of all children are either overweight or at risk of becoming obese.

Says Chairman Miller in a video statement to the press, “This is a smart policy that responds to the significant need to help improve children’s health and well being. The child nutrition programs in school and after school play an integral role in how children thrive both physically and academically. We need to ensure that there are no gaps in the healthy meals for children after school, during the summer, on weekends, during school vacations because we know that hunger never takes a vacation.”

With America on the brink of a national crisis regarding our children’s health, it’s unthinkable that this bill would not be passed, unanimously. The future health of our children—the future health of the nation—depends on it.

Editor’s Note—December 2, 2010
The House of Representatives approved a $4.5 billion child nutrition bill giving schools more money to spend on school lunches and setting nutritional standards for foods sold in schools. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act will expand access to free and reduced price meals and improve the nutritional quality of all meals children receive at school. The school lunch program currently feeds over 31 million children a day.