SNA urges Congress to bolster historically under-funded school meal programs and support USDA efforts to minimize unnecessary regulatory burdens. Specifically, SNA requests that Congress:

  1. Oppose any effort to block grant school meal programs.
  • The success and sustainability of school meal programs depend on continued federal involvement, including federal reimbursements for each meal served.
  • Block grants would dismantle an effective federal program and put students at risk by cutting funds and abolishing federal nutrition standards and eligibility rules for free and reduced price school meals.

Hungry students could go without:

  • Under fixed-sum block grants, when the number of children eligible for free or reduced price meals increases, states receive no additional funding to feed these students.

Cite examples relevantto your program, i.e.

  • Natural disaster
  • Local economic recession
  • Rising enrollment

Slash funds & abolish standards:

  • The House-proposed block grant would have eliminated annual inflationary increases, all paid meal and 6 cent reimbursements, resulting in a crippling 12% funding cut after three years(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities).
  • Cite examples of potential impact to your program
  • Limit free and reduced price meals for students
  • Meal program losses covered at the expense of academics
  • Reduce the variety and qualityof school menu options

Refer toBlock Grant fact sheet for more information.

  1. Support H.R. 3738, the Healthy Breakfasts Help Kids Learn Act, to provide 6 cents in USDA Foods (commodities) for every school breakfast served.
  • Help schools cover rising breakfast costs and support America’s farmers.

Share examples of how USDA Foods at breakfast would help you improve menus and allow more students to benefit from nutritious school breakfast, i.e.

  • Invest in innovative breakfast in the classroom or grab-and-go programs, proven to increase breakfast consumption
  • More children would enjoy a wider variety of American grown foods as part of a healthy school breakfast (commodity support is only provided for school lunch)
  • USDA estimated that meeting updated nutrition standards for school breakfast would increase expenses by 27 cents per breakfast, yet schools received no additional funding.

Refer toH.R. 3738 fact sheet for more information.

  1. Continue to monitor and support USDA’s work to simplify overly burdensome child nutrition mandates to improve efficiencies & reduce costs
  • SNA supports maintaining robust federal nutrition standards to ensure all students receive nutritious, well-balanced meals at school.
  • However, some overly prescriptive rules have resulted in unintended consequences, creating challenges to prepare nutritious meals that appeal to diverse student tastes.
  • SNA urges Congress to monitor USDA’s efforts to provide school meal program flexibility. An interim final rule was published in November;the final rule, to be published in fall 2018, should:
  • Maintain the Target 1 sodium levels and eliminate future targets.
  • Provide menu examplesof significant sodium reductionsto meet Target 1
  • Share examples of challenges to meet future targets that risk taking healthy options off the menu, i.e. naturally occurring sodium, student acceptance
  • SNA survey revealed 92% of responding districts are concerned about the availability of foods that will meet future limits and are well accepted by students.
  • The Institute of Medicine warned that “reducing the sodium content of school meals as specified and in a way that is well accepted by students will present major challenges and may not be possible.”(School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children, 2010)
  • Restore the July 2012 requirement that at least half of grains offered with school meals be whole grain rich.
  • SNA survey revealed widespread efforts to increase student acceptance of whole grain foods, yet 65% of responding districts reported challenges with the current whole grain mandate that all grains must be whole grain rich.

Share examples of challenges in your program, i.e.

  • Students’ regional and cultural preferences for specific refined grains (white rice, pasta, grits or tortillas)
  • Contribute to increased wasteor decline in student lunch participation
  • Preparation challenges
  • Product availability/cost
  • USDA established a whole grain waiver allowing struggling schools to serve select foods that do not meet the standard, but the waiver process is inconsistent across states.

Share challenges that impact your program or other states, i.e.

  • Several states do not offer the waiver
  • Application process is cumbersome / overwhelming for struggling schools
  • Overly burdensome mandates, including required documentation that schools have no means to collect, have limited waiver availability

Refer to Nutrition Standards fact sheet for more information.

  • Finally, SNA thanks Congress for fundingan independent study to identify ways to simplify federal child nutrition program requirements.
  • SNA urges Congress to monitor this ongoing effort to streamline duplicative administrative mandates that divert school nutrition professionals’ attention from their mission of nourishing students.

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