Child Nutrition Reauthorization

This post comes from our friend Julie Negrin M.S. – Julie is a nutritionist, cooking instructor, writer and most recently, a blogger – You can find the full post on her blog: My Kitchen Nutrition.

The Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) act is going to be re-signed in Congress very soon which is why I was lobbying in Washington DC last week. CNR is a huge piece of legislation that covers several extremely important programs including school lunches, after-school and summer feeding programs, and Women Infants, and Children (WIC). It’s only signed every 4 or 5 years so what Congress decides NOW will affect these programs for half a decade.

It’s bewildering to me why the government is hemming and hawing over how much money they should invest in CNR. It could be as low as a half a billion (which sounds like a lot but divide that by five years and millions of schools) and as much as $4 billion (which would be a miracle).  When they give so little for each child’s school lunch, how can the school staff be expected to produce healthy, balanced meals for growing children? Even the most talented chefs I know would have a hard time coming up with a well-rounded meal appropriate for children if they only had a couple of bucks to spend per person. And had little to no kitchen equipment. And were given low-quality ingredients.

Why does this matter to you? Well, for one, every time you get taxes taken out of your hard-earned paycheck, it’s funding programs like school lunches. And even if you don’t have kids, this legislation affects our economy – sick kids grow up to be sick adults. Last year obesity related health problems cost this country $147 billion. That $4 billion doesn’t sound like so much anymore, huh?

It even affects national security! Currently, 70% of military age kids are UNFIT to serve. Even retired generals know we need to improve school lunches and nutrition education for kids. People are worried about higher taxes if we support these kinds of programs but the truth is, this is a drop in the bucket for our nation’s spending and we will be saving ourselves a lot of money in the long run. Consider this: we spend roughly $7 billion PER MONTH in Iraq!

We need to start investing in prevention and turning our health around in the kitchen – starting with school lunches. Invest now, save later. A fundamental of finance theory that applies to our health.

So, what can you do? While you sit on your computer or doing the laundry? Quite a bit, actually.

To learn more, visit the Health Schools Campaign website and Julie’s full post at My Kitchen Nutrition.