Yesterday, in Knoxville, Iowa U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack “launched the start of National School Lunch Week by highlighting efforts to improve school nutrition, combat childhood obesity, and encourage healthy lifestyles through USDA's Healthier US School Challenge.”Secretary Vilsack was visiting West Elementary School, which achieved “Gold” status because the school exceeded existing nutrition standards via “providing healthier food choices, nutrition education, and physical activity to its students.” Almost 600 elementary schools have excelled in this program since its inception in 2004.
In the USDA news release Secretary Vilsack stated, ‘"USDA is committed to promoting nutrition standards and providing our children well-balanced, healthy meals during their school day . . . Lunches provided by the National School Lunch Program are a vital resource that help children develop healthy eating and lifestyle choices that will be with them for a lifetime."
Currently the National School Lunch program provides meals to over 31 million children in 101,000 schools and child care institutions each day. National School Lunch Week was started in 1963 “by Presidential Proclamation to raise awareness and support the National School Lunch Program and the critical service it provides.”
New Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Blanche Lincoln has consistently made child nutrition a priority for her office and this trend is expected to continue as the Senator and Representative George Miller secured more nutrition funding in the agricultural appropriations bill that recently passed. Additionally, child nutrition reauthorization will be a priority for the Agriculture Committee as Lincoln’s chairmanship begins.
To read the USDA news release click here.
Posted: 10/13/09
