WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) today introduced the School Food Modernization Act, which would give our nation's schools greater access to the tools and resources they need to offer healthy food options for students. While nutritional standards for meals served in schools have increased considerably in recent years, many school kitchens were built decades ago and lack the basic equipment necessary to prepare wholesome foods.
The School Food Modernization Act aims to make better use of current resources by authorizing grants and loan assistance for school equipment and infrastructure improvements and by helping food service personnel meet the updated nutrition standards. At no additional cost to the federal government, this legislation would:
"We need to start our school children off on the right food every day," Senator Collins said, "If they are going to compete in the global arena, they need to be healthy and their minds and bodies fully nourished."
"Kids often spend up to seven hours a day at school, making it particularly important that they get healthy meals to help them focus as they learn and grow. But in North Dakota, more than 70 percent of school districts need new or improved kitchen equipment. Congress can't just mandate healthy school lunch requirements. We need to offer real support like Senator Collins and I are proposing with this legislation. As the daughter of a school cook, I understand the work that goes into preparing many healthy meals each day for kids, and this bill would help make limited resources stretch as far as possible to provide support to communities that need it in North Dakota," said Senator Heitkamp.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently updated nutrition standards for school meals to align them with the most up-to-date science. As a result, schools are serving more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat or no-fat dairy options, while offering fewer high-fat options and excess calories. While nutritional standard for meals served in our schools have increased considerably, supports for schools to implement these important changes have lagged behind. Many outdated school kitchens were designed with little capacity beyond reheating and holding food for dining service.
According to the PEW Charitable Trusts, 86 percent of schools in the United States are serving healthy lunches, but many could being do it more effectively and at less cost if they had updated equipment and infrastructure. Nationwide, 88 percent of school districts need at least one piece of kitchen equipment, and 55 percent need kitchen infrastructure changes, such as electrical upgrades.
In Maine, 99 percent of Maine school districts need at least one piece of equipment and almost half (48 percent) of districts need kitchen infrastructure upgrades. While some of the needs appear quite simple - food processors, knives, serving-portion utensils, scales, utility carts - there is still a cost. The median equipment need per school is $45,000.
PEW Charitable Trusts found that 16 percent of the schools in North Dakota were not expected to be able to meet the new nutrition standards by the end of the 2012-2013 school year. Additionally, the study found that 74 percent of school districts in North Dakota need at least one piece of kitchen equipment to better serve healthy meals. But the median cost to meet the new lunch requirements is approximately $18,000 per school in the state.
Serving healthy foods in schools is critically important for our children's health and wellbeing. Childhood obesity rates in our country have tripled over the past three decades. More than 23 million adolescents and children in our country - nearly one in three young people nationwide - are obese or overweight. Improving the nutritional quality of school meals can help fight the obesity epidemic throughout the country, putting children on healthy footing in order to prevent long term health concerns related to obesity, such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
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