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Josh MatthewsJmatthe1@cscc.eduEnglish 102/ Lyons- RobinsonEssay 3

“School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children”

Until the introduction of Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School

Breakfast Programs by the Agricultural Department, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans of

2005 were ignored in favor of lower costing ingredients. Research concluded that “School

Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children’’ would pave the way for increased availability of

fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free and low-fat fluid milk in school meals; reduce the

levels of sodium and saturated fat in meals; and help meet the nutritional needs of school

children within their calorie requirements (3). The addition of “School Meals: Building Blocks

for Healthy Children” has many advantages, and is without a doubt a strong, positive move in

the right direction.

Before we consider the many advantages of the updated nutritional guidelines, the

numerous benefits it provides, and the opposition that is trying to remove the guidelines, we

must define the word nutrition. Nutrition is the science of food, the nutrients in foods and how

the body uses those nutrients. It includes the process of ingestion, digestion, absorption,

metabolism, transport, storage and excretion of those nutrients. It also includes the

environmental, psychological and behavioral aspects of food and eating. The six classes of

nutrients include: carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals and water [3]. When we

discuss nutrition many of us think back to when we had learned the food pyramid in grade

school. Most do not realize that the outdated food pyramid is no longer used, which is a large

part of the problem; our schools had been using standards from as long ago as the 1960’s.

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Nutritional Guidelines for Americans of 2010 the USDA has adopted a new strategy for

understanding caloric intake, or how to balance eating and being healthy. The pyramid system,

aside from being outdated and updated to match new technology and research, is a plate. The

plate is then filled in a similar fashion as to how the old pyramid had sections, but looks literally

like how you should expect the plate you eat your meal on to appear.

Over half of the population of school-aged children in Columbus, fifty-seven percent and

rising, are enrolled in the lunch assistance programs of the state (1) and Columbus is in the top

five cities in the nation as far as percentages of meals provided to low-income communities

(10). With well over 1,850,000 children dependent on provided nutrition it is only responsible

that they are fed a healthy meal (2). (Previous thesis, suggested change to current WL).

Children are a particularly important focus of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans

because of the growing body of evidence documenting the vital role that optimal nutrition plays

throughout our lifespan. Today, too many children are consuming diets with too many calories

and not enough nutrients and are not getting enough physical activity. Approximately 32

percent of children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 years are overweight or obese, with 17

percent of children being obese (15). In addition, risk factors for adult chronic diseases are

increasingly found in younger ages. Eating patterns established in childhood often carry into

later life, making early intervention on adopting healthy nutrition and physical activity

behaviors a priority.

Passing by a margin of fifty-three votes there were plenty of those in the House against

reforming children’s nutrition, one-hundred and fifty-seven to be exact (7). Four democrats and

one-hundred and fifty-three republicans all voted against the bill for a variety of reasons (8).

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Representative Paul Broun, Republican of Georgia and a physician, said: “This bill is not about

child nutrition. It’s not about healthy kids. It’s about an expansion of the federal government,

more and more control from Washington, borrowing more money and putting our children in

greater debt. The federal government has no business setting nutritional standards and telling

families what they should and should not eat. Short-sighted thinking like this is part of the

problem and quite baffling from a physician, but blatantly obvious that such medical knowledge

was ignored. The American Public Health Association had already made public statistical

analysis of America’s obesity cost (9) so it brings into question Broun’s motives. If economic

costs and debit management were truly his concern then the obesities projected cost of $198

million by 2018 would certainly be of note. "Obesity is going to be a leading driver in rising

health-care costs," says Kenneth Thorpe, chairman of the department of health policy and

management at Emory University in Atlanta. Thorpe did this special analysis on obesity for

America's Health Rankings, the 20th annual assessment of the nation's health on a state-by-

state basis. It’s been long established that obesity has a monetary value.

Representative John Kline, Republican of Minnesota, said this provision was tantamount

to a tax increase on middle-class families. The National Governors Association and local school

officials objected to it as a new federal mandate. But Margo G. Wootan, director of nutrition

policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a research and advocacy group, said: “The

price of paid lunches needs to go up. Schools are not charging enough to cover the cost. As a

result, money intended to provide healthy food to low-income kids is being diverted to

subsidize food for higher-income children.” School districts that comply with the new standards

can receive an additional federal payment of 6 cents for each lunch served. The National School

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Boards Association, representing local board members, said “the actual increased cost of

compliance” was at least twice that amount (8).

As with any proposal, there needs to be an understanding of its application and

influence of its target population to weigh the value of the program. The children of Columbus

are in a drastic state of increasing poor health and obesity as tracked by Nationwide Children’s

Hospital (4). While their studies indicate that child weight control is unquestionably a priority

issue, it also shows that with current initiatives it is declining in populations that are in these

programs and increasing in those who are not part of them. While it would seem logical and be

implied that by increased activity and dietary standards one could control weight, it is not

happening and still challenged. The state of children’s nutrition before the current guidelines

were set in place by the USDA was horribly lacking and in 2009, USDA research uncovered that

school-used meat was below quality and standards of fast food chains (5). "We simply are not

giving our kids in schools the same level of quality and safety as you get when you go to many

fast-food restaurants," says J. Glenn Morris, professor of medicine and director of the Emerging

Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida. We are not using those same standards. The

following year plans were set in motion to change that, due to the zero tolerance policy on

meat standards with the inception of School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children. Also,

the Obama administration passed a bill supercharging the effort with 4.5 billion dollars funding.

In signing of the Healthy, Hungry- Free Kids Act, Michelle Obama said "Parents have a right to

expect that their efforts at home won't be undone each day in the school cafeteria or in the

vending machine in the hallway. ...Parents have a right to expect that their kids will be served

fresh, healthy food that meets high nutritional standards." (6) Having the first lady as one of the

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biggest champions of child welfare very well might be the trump card that is needed to see a

change in many of these laws, rules, and bills.

Currently the senate is in its final revision of what would overturn the reformed

nutrition currently in place (11). The idea behind the change is that public schools would save 7

billion over the next five years. The USDA is the first to point out that claim is completely

unfounded, but regardless it is worth looking into what possible gain could be had. The revision

would first revoke the mandated allotment of food, but would also change how some foods are

categorized. For example, pizza would be added to the vegetable category by its tomato paste

and french fries would be added as potatoes, both with very financially rewarding benefits to

the major manufacturers that supply them. Critics of the current USDA food regulations point

out that tomato paste’s many nutritional virtues—vitamins A and C, potassium, and lycopene

should not be ignored, which at a nutritional level is something, but ignores the many negatives

that come with the rest of the pizza. They want you to not condemn tomato paste, which isn’t a

horrible idea, but seem to leave out the rest of the meal that would include it. With the

possible addition of starchy potatoes, sugary grains, and high sodium counts at the cost of

“saving money” it will undoubtedly add to the obesity of the 31 million school children are

already losing a battle against.

Columbus City Schools is concerned about the possible changes and has the stance that

“students spend 25-30% of their day at school and get 35-50% of their daily calories while at

school; Columbus City Schools (CCS) is working hard to create the healthiest school

environment possible” (12). While the school system acknowledges that eating healthy and

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wellness do have a cost they also are quick to point out that it is certainly one worth paying.

Research shows that children have better attendance, test scores, and behavior due to dietary

management. Cori Henthorn, Superintendant of Health and Wellness for Columbus City

Schools, also pointed out that their [the Wellness programs’] initiative was rewarded in the

form is a 1.2 million dollar grant from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation (12,13).

Ohio received a grade of “F” in 2006 for its nutritional standards and “Ohio is the

only state that does not have physical education state standards and is one of 13 states without

a physical education coordinator in the state department of education. Ohio also does not have

assessment in physical education, nor are grades required to be reported to parents” (14). With

all of these points, the addition of “School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children” has

many obvious advantages, and is without a doubt a strong, positive move in the right direction.

Certainly it is no wonder why as a district we are concerned that our efforts could be in vein

with the almost certain future of the standards changing for the worse and what that will mean

to our youth.

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The bill: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.3307:

Sources:

(1) http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-03-24-school-lunch-safety_N.htm (2) http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/01/15/more-ohio-kids-living-in-

poverty-lunch-program-shows.html(3) http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governance/regulations/2011-01-13.pdf (4) http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/full-potential-obesity (5) http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-12-08-school-lunch-standards_N.htm (6) http://familyfitness.about.com/od/motivation/a/michelle_obama_quotes.htm (7) http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/111/house/2/603?ref=politics (8) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/us/politics/03child.html (9) http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2009-11-17-future-obesity-

costs_N.htm(10) http://frac.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/urbanbreakfast2009-2010.pdf (11) http://www.nationaljournal.com/healthcare/pizza-wins-food-fight-in-congress-

20111117(12) Columbus City Schools Wellness initiative (365-8995), Supervisor Cori Henthorn.(13) http://www.columbus.k12.oh.us/applications/intercom.nsf/pages/

04.14.2008%20CCS%20Wellness%20Initative,%20Snackwise?opendocument(14) http://p12.osu.edu/reports/siedentop.pdf (15) Dietary Guidelines for Americans, USDA