By now you've likely seen the news that there are some members of Congress who want to roll back some of the nutrition standards that we successfully implemented into our nation's school meals program in September 2012. For the sake of our children's health, we cannot weaken these standards. We have a chance to speak out against proposed changes to the standards this week. The House of Representatives will bring the Agriculture Appropriations bill to the floor for a vote on Wednesday. This bill includes a waiver to allow schools to delay implementation of the new nutrition standards if the school nutrition program has experienced six months of temporary declines in revenue. The USDA has already addressed challenges school districts are facing in implementing the updated school meal requirements by issuing guidance that provides flexibility on servings of grains and extends the timeline for implementation of the whole grain requirements. Additionally, the USDA has reported that more than 90 percent of schools are successfully meeting the new standards. The proposed legislation would move public health backwards and unravel progress already made in improving the nutritional quality of school meals and the implementation of successful policies. The same legislation that will come before the House would also require the inclusion of white potatoes in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The Institute of Medicine has recommended that white potatoes not be part of the WIC food package because they are overconsumed by most Americans, and the purpose of the WIC program is to supplement the diets of low-income women and children with nutritious foods they may not otherwise consume. For decades, Congress has wisely ensured that federal child nutrition programs have been guided by science. ACS CAN, along with 100 national organizations and many more state and local groups, oppose attempts to use the appropriations process to change or weaken the federal child nutrition programs, including the proposed school meal waivers and changes to the WIC program requirements. We believe that the federal child nutrition programs should be guided by science, rather than politics. Join us in telling Congress to leave school nutrition standards alone by tweeting with the hashtag #SaveSchoolLunch!
Even as Breast Cancer Awareness Month comes to a close, ACS CAN will keep working year-round, across the country and with both state and federal lawmakers, to advance the public policies we know will reduce the burden of breast cancer.