Will the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act Fix School Lunches?

The Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act has passed in the Senate, but even if it is signed into law (as expected it will be), school food in the U.S. will still be far from perfect.

The act would increase the federal reimbursement of school lunch programs by six cents per meal—but as the "Renegade Lunch Lady" Ann Cooper pointed out the other night at an event in Boulder—Hungry for Change: A Candid Dialogue About How We Feed Our Children—that's a pittance compared with what kids actually need.

The federal reimbursement is currently $2.72, but the large majority of that goes to administrative overhead. One dollar or less per meal is what's left to buy the food, meaning—to frame it the way Cooper did—we often spend three or four times more on a cup of coffee, at $3 or $4 a cup, than the amount allocated to feed a child a healthy meal in school.

"If we can't guarantee that every child gets healthy food as part of their education, there's something wrong with our country," she said.

She's been revolutionizing the food served in Boulder schools, and has already succeeded (since her start here last year) in getting salad bars into some cafeterias and chocolate milk out of schools, a drink she calls "soda in drag."

U.S. Representative Jared Polis, who has been active in pushing the Reauthorization (and was also involved in banning the use of antibiotics in farm animals), spoke about the connection between obesity and lack of access to nutritious foods. He also highlighted the fact that many people do not realize: malnutrition and obesity can coexist. Eating a lot of nutrient-deficient foods can leave a person with too many calories, but still without the nutrients they need to be healthy.

The Reauthorization will make small improvements to school food, but it was clear from the evening that many more are needed. The notion of feeding kids on essentially a dollar or less per meal needs to be reevaluated. As Jared Polis pointed out, right now there is a disincentive to provide healthy school meals. Schools need to be incentivized through programs like what Boulder is doing with Ann Cooper at the helm.