Georgia PTA Advocates to Get Junk Food Out of Schools
By Kim Arasin, Georgia PTA Health & Wellness Chair
Georgia PTA is happy to be a part of Georgians for a Healthy Future. As an association founded on Advocacy, Georgia PTA is heavily involved in making a difference in the health and well-being of our children and families. In fact, there are two bills up before Congress in Washington right now that PTA is lobbying heavily to pass. They are H.R. 1324 and S. 934 – the Child Nutrition and Protection Act – aka the Competitive Foods Bill. This past June, my colleague, Natalie Rogers and I were able to participate in an Advocacy Day in DC to lobby Congress and the White House. I met with members of our Georgia Delegation to ask for their co-sponsorship and Natalie met with Michelle Obama’s staff. The bills (very similar to each other, one is house version and the other is senate version) would grant authority to the Secretary of Agriculture to update the standards on the Competitive Foods sold on school campuses.
Competitive Foods – These are all of the foods sold on school campuses that are not part of the National School Lunch Program. These foods “compete” for our students’ money – and often, for their health! The guidelines on these particular foods/beverages – which include vending, a la carte lines, extras and school stores – have not been updated for 30 years – since 1979!! The guidelines were written when our country’s concern was malnourishment rather than the current Childhood (and Adulthood) Obesity epidemic. So the foods mentioned in the 1979 guidelines are based on what they call “foods of minimal nutritional value” and say that things like breath mints, seltzer water, and popsicles are not allowed.
Sodium, Fat & Sugar? What is not mentioned in the 30-year old standards is any limits on sodium, fat and sugar. It’s really time to update the guidelines to reflect the health trends and modern science that are relevant today.
Undermine our investment – Since the National School Lunch Program is taxpayer-funded, it is important to maximize our investment. We currently spend about $12 billion on the school meals program – which is subject to nutritional guidelines that were last reviewed about 5 years ago. Without updated standards on the foods sold in schools that compete with this investment, many students are eating low nutrient, high calorie foods instead of the school lunch. Besides the effect on the taxpayers’ wallets, the effect on our children’s health is frightening!
National Standards would help vendors as well as our children – It has been argued by some of the members of the Georgia Congressional Delegation that “this should be a local issue” – that the competitive foods should not be regulated at a national level but rather by each school district.
So here are the two main problems with that argument:
1. The National School Lunch Program is a federal program paid for with federal dollars out of all American’s pockets. The guidelines on the lunch program are federal guidelines. For consistency we need to keep the “extras” from undermining our monetary investment as well as our health curriculum and goals.
2. It will be easier for the vendors, food and beverage manufacturers, to supply healthier food and beverage items if everyone has the same standards. It would not be cost effective for example for a manufacturer to create one product with one set of standards for Fulton County and a product meeting completely different standards for Savannah City Schools, or for the state of Texas for example. It will be more cost effective for the vendors as well as the consumers to have one guideline and one set of products available for all.
How Can You Help? Georgia PTA is urging its members and everyone in the state to contact your members of Congress to ask that they co-sponsor H.R. 1324 and S. 934. Please call or write your members of Congress!
