Healthy Schools Campaign

Real Healthcare Reform Must Include Prevention (That Is, Don’t Forget Food & Fitness!)

By Amanda Chablani, HSC Policy Specialist

Healthcare reform policy is finally making some progress in Congress and, while it’s great to see movement, we’re worried that prevention efforts – the proven strategies such as food and fitness initiatives that are key in making our nation healthier – are getting sacrificed in the effort to cut costs.  

While both House and Senate healthcare bills have included provisions to fund community prevention programs, those provisions may well be cut over the next few days. Now, we need our elected leaders to know how important prevention efforts are to real healthcare reform

As we and others have noted, prevention is the most cost effective way to address our public health crises of asthma, obesity, and diabetes.  Slashing prevention at a time when an unprecedented number of children are afflicted by these epidemics will leave us with healthcare reform that does not address the root of our problems.  

If we seriously want to improve the health of millions of Americans, we need to provide adequate prevention services to children and families.  That’s why we will be contacting our legislators and urging them to protect the prevention initiatives in the healthcare bill; we’ll be asking them not to forget about food, fitness, and the other fundamental parts of being healthy.  We hope you will too.

Child Nutrition Act Reauthorization – Let’s Do it Right!

Over the past several months, we’ve been preparing for Congress to take up reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act this fall.  However, as you may have noticed, the healthcare debate has been all-consuming in Washington, delaying most everything else -- including Child Nutrition Act reauthorization.

Last week, the Agriculture Appropriations bill extended the current school food program through September 30, 2010 – and all it needs is a presidential signature. It makes some important new investments in health, including:

• $85 million to improve children’s access to meals during the summer 
• $25 million to help schools purchase cafeteria equipment to provide healthy school meals 
• $25 million to help states automatically enroll children in the School Lunch Program

However, it does not fundamentally shift the program or fund healthier school food. That battle will be taken up next fall.

This extension is not unexpected and it may not be a bad thing.  Updating the Child Nutrition Act could involve major policy shifts, and it deserves to be in the front and center of policy discussions  when it's taken up. As long as the health care debate continues, the Child Nutrition Act reauthorization and the school food issues it involves may get lost in the shuffle. 

So while we won’t see comprehensive reforms to school food this year, we have seen a great deal of exciting movement from the administration (some of which we’ve blogged about here and here).  All of this movement will affect the debate when Congress takes it up next year.

In the meantime, we will again bring our student chefs -- and the healthy school meals they design -- to Washington, we will continue working with policymakers on school nutrition, and we will work to raise the profile of the issues involved in Child Nutrition Act reauthorization, particularly the issue of making more nutritious school meals available to children throughout the US. 

Stay tuned – we’ll keep you updated.

Invite Your Legislators to the Through Your Lens Exhibit!

The Through Your Lens Exhibit opens on Capitol Hill today! The photos in the exhibit, all taken by students, teachers and community members around the US, tell a powerful story about the condition of our nation's school buildings.

The exhibit is opening as Congress considers legislation to fund the repair, renovation and construction of safe, healthy, and green school buildings.

Please help us spread the word about the exhibit and ensure that our legislators know how important it is to take a look at the images. Please take a moment to invite your senators and representatives to view the exhibit on Capitol Hill and to join us for the opening reception on Monday, Oct. 5 from 5-7 pm! (In the DC area? Come out and join us yourself! And bring a friend!) You can view the exhibit:

•     Online at www.throughyourlens.org
•     In the in the Russell Rotunda of the Senate office building  Capitol Hill Oct. 5-9.

Thank you for helping show our elected leaders the often unseen reality of our nation’s school building conditions.

Through Your Lens Photo Exhibit Opens on Capitol Hill Next Week!

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

We're thrilled announce that photos and stories from our Through Your Lens contest (which we've been blogging about over the last few weeks) will be shown in a special exhibit on Capitol Hill next week! The Through Your Lens exhibit will be on display from Oct. 5-9 in the Russell Rotunda of the Senate office building on Capitol Hill.

The exhibit will open as Congress is considering legislation to fund the repair, renovation and construction of safe, healthy schools.

The photos and stories in the exhibit were submitted by students, teachers and community members across the country. The exhibit provides an honest window into our public school facilities: the parts that are inspiring and the parts we need to change.

Despite the importance of school buildings to teaching, learning, health, environment and community vibrancy, many of our nation’s public school buildings remain in poor condition. With legislation to provide federal support for school construction, modernization, and renovation moving through both the House and Senate, the time to act is now.

Help us by getting involved. There are three things you can do:

• Join us at the exhibit!  If you're in the DC area next week, come and see the exhibit. Or come to our exhibit opening event on Monday, Oct. 5 from 5:00 - 7:00 pm to meet some of the student photographers and hear from advocates for safe, healthy schools. (Click here to RSVP.) If you can't make it, you can always view the photos online.

• Invite your legislators to the exhibit! Send a message to your legislators telling them to stop by the rotunda and view the exhibit. We want to make sure they see the reality of our nation's school building conditions.

• Help spread the word about the exhibit! Click here for links or sample messages to share Through Your Lens with your friends.

We're excited for the opportunity to bring these images to DC -- and we hope to see you at the exhibit next week!

HSC Helps Kick Off Green Schools Coalition

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

On September 8, I attended the inaugural meeting for the U.S. Green Building Council's Green Schools Coalition. I'll give three reasons why it was a great meeting:

1. The participants were great;
2. The main speaker was great;
3. The office building was the coolest build-out I've ever been in.

1) The Participants

The Green Schools Coalition is an early effort to bring together education advocates around issues of greening our schools. It brought together leaders from groups representing school  administrators, unions, health advocates and environmentalists. It was such a diverse group -- and a group that can really make a statement. And even more exciting is that the individuals there were committed to moving a national agenda forward for healthier, more sustainable schools throughout the US.

2) The Speaker

Under Secretary of Education, Martha Kanter, spoke to introduce the group, and it seems to me that she said all the right things for school health. She spoke of the need for proper nutrition, healthy indoor environments and, of course, sustainable construction and maintenance.

But my favorite quote of hers was that we need to move "beyond the balance sheet of energy savings" in building green schools. We need to remember that building schools shouldn't only be measured by years for a payback in energy savings. Some things don't have measurable monetary benefits. Schools need to inspire creativity, facilitate learning and support health. None of which has a specific dollar amount attached to it, but all of which could spell financial disaster if we fail. 

It's nice to hear when our leaders seem to get it.

3) The Space

You'd expect the USGBC to have the mack-daddy green space -- and they didn't disappoint in their newly renovated office space. Occupancy sensors for individual cubicles, eco zones with curtains of air to reduce the need for heating and cooling, reclaimed wood paneling, use of colors to reflect light, waterless urinals... It was a building geek's dream to see all of this technology. But one of the things that struck me is that the use of the term "green" is expanding to mean ergonomics, mood, health, healthy food prep, comfort and building community -- all things that we hope to see in schools. Maybe we all need to expand the definition of "green," or we need to come up with a new word that is more encompassing. Either way, the space was awesome.

So thank you to the USGBC for starting the Green Schools Coalition. We're proud to be members and excited to get to work!

Through Your Lens Photos Open Window into Nation's School Buildings

What does a school look like?

Students from across the US have been answering that question with more clarity than we could have imagined when we launched the Through Your Lens Photo & Essay Contest several weeks ago.

With powerful images and vivid stories, students are giving us all a window into what our nation’s school buildings really look like. As the contest comes to a close, we’re working to bring many of these images to Congress, with an upcoming exhibit at the US Capitol and a book documenting the remarkable pictures and stories as our elected leaders debate legislation for school building maintenance and repair.

Here, we’ve excerpted a few of the many entries. You can find all of the photos and stories online at the Through Your Lens gallery.

Bullet Hole? by Kristen from Scotts Valley

Classroom Decor. by Caitlin from Aurora.

Fresh Fruit in a Land of Fast Food. by Susana from Los Angeles.

 

Art in the Bathroom. by Reid from Charlottesville.

If you would like to share any of these photos or stories with your Congressional leaders, be sure to visit the Through Your Lens action center to send a letter and link to the image!

Healthy School Food Makes the News!

By Lehia Franklin Acox, HSC public relations consultant 

Public interest in healthy school food is growing, from President Obama’s recent remarks about the Child Nutrition Act to news coverage of local and national efforts to encourage action as the country heads back to school. Here’s a recap:

• The Los Angeles Times covered Slow Food USA’s “Time for Lunch” campaign to encourage individual and collective action on reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act. HSC is a partner in Slow Food’s national Time for Lunch effort, which prioritizes increased funding for better school food.

• And in Chicago, Slow Food Chicago hosts an “Eat-In” today, Wednesday, August 26 in Daley Plaza. Huffington Post Chicago talks about the event and the organization here.

• As covered in our blog, President Obama recently spoke about the need to engage local farmers to deliver healthier food to schoolchildren.

• Whole Foods, which has seen plenty of news coverage lately in response to CEO John Mackey’s comments on health care reform, is making headlines for the launch of its School Food Revolution in partnership with Chef Ann Cooper, a.k.a. “The Renegade Lunch Lady.” National coverage of the effort includes the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Uprising Radio and even the trade publication Pork magazine. HSC’s Rochelle Davis was also featured in the NYT and Uprising pieces. (Stay posted for details about HSC’s upcoming series of events with Ann Cooper and local Whole Foods shops in the Chicago area.)

• Veggie lunches made the news in U.S. News & World Report, which highlighted the vegetarian options popping up on school menus nationwide while pointing out the financial challenges school food service directors face in providing healthy meals.

• And food writer and policy expert Marion Nestle even tackled a question about school meals in her regular San Francisco Chronicle food column. 

It’s exciting to see this new level of national dialogue around the school food issues that we know are so important. Stay posted for more updates, and be sure to raise your voice for healthy school meals!

In Health Care Reform, School Food and Fitness Are Smart Investments

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

As the health care debate continues to heat up, we're glad to see that for the first time prevention is taking center stage. Michelle Obama said this week that promoting nutrition, wellness and prevention "is to me one of the true keys of changing the health paradigm in this country."

And Ezra Klien brings up an important distinction in this debate: the difference between health care and health. He explains:

...we didn't build a health care system in the hopes that we'd eventually overcome the economic challenges it posed. We built it because we want to be healthy. And spending a bit more money helping people eat well when they're young is, in terms of being healthy, probably a lot more effective than spending a lot of money to keep people from dying from diabetes when they're older.

This is a simple but important point -- providing better food to children is a strategy for improving long-term health. Better school food does require an investment: an investment of money, an investment of time to train staff, an investment of effort to change habits and change systems. Serving healthy food at school, teaching wellness, and helping kids develop healthy lifestyles will pay dividends for years to come in the form of significantly healthier lives for those children.

At the heart of the discussion of health care reform is the question of how to best allocate resources so that the most people will have the opportunity to live healthier lives. We say, investing in health-promoting programs at schools is a very effective way to do this -- a smart investment. As Klein puts it:

Spending trillions to increase health care coverage while refusing to make the small investments that would help people eat better is like installing an incredibly expensive heating system in your house but never bothering to purchase a sweater.

The upcoming reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act offers the opportunity for the federal government to invest increased funding in better school food. You can learn more and take action on HSC's website.

Michelle Obama Speaks Up for School Food at White House Garden Harvest Day

Yesterday was harvest day at the White House kitchen garden, and Michelle Obama took the opportunity to raise awareness of the particular challenges and opportunities ahead for children’s health. Mrs. Obama celebrated harvest day with the fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School who have been helping her look after the garden and spoke with them in detail about school food.

Here at HSC, we were very encouraged to hear what the First Lady had to say about child nutrition:

And the USDA’s National School Lunch Program serves approximately 30 million meals each year to low-income children.  And because these meals are the main source of consistent nourishment for these kids, we need to make sure we offer them the healthiest meals possible.

So to make sure that we give all our kids a good start to their day and to their future, we need to improve the quality and nutrition of the food served in schools.  We're approaching the first big opportunity to move this to the top of the agenda with the upcoming reauthorization of the child nutrition programs.  In doing so, we can go a long way towards creating a healthier generation for our kids.

We couldn’t agree more with Mrs. Obama’s statement about the importance of serving the healthiest school meals possible.

We were also thrilled to see the First Lady, who has spoken in general about the value of healthy eating, speak in specific terms about the Child Nutrition Act and the role of legislation in bringing that value to the nation’s children at school.

HSC urges Congress to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act with increased funding for better food in schools. You can lend your voice to this campaign by sending a letter at our Child Nutrition Act action center.

For a detailed account of the harvest day celebration and the political significance of  Mrs. Obama’s remarks, check out Obamafoodorama.

Good News for Students in Philly!

by Jean Saunders, HSC School Wellness Director

Since 1991, the School District of Philadelphia has offered either breakfast or lunch at no cost to 121,000 of the District's 167,000 students. This Universal Feeding Program was conceived as a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the School District of Philadelphia. Established as a pilot program, it replaces the normal practice of requiring applications to be filled out, returned and processed to determine eligibility for free or reduced-price lunches. Instead, a socioeconomic survey establishes the approximate eligibility rates at select schools.

Earlier this year, the USDA had announced that it would adopt a decision by the Bush administration to end the Philadelphia pilot program after the 2009-2010 school year. Following that announcement, Philadelphia school administrators and Pennsylvania elected officials, including Sen. Arlen Specter and Gov. Ed Rendell, protested the USDA’s decision to end the Universal Feeding Program.

On June 5, USDA Secretary Vilsack accepted a plan put forward by Congressman Chaka Fattah and others that would have the Universal Feeding Program program continue through the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, operating as it had throughout the duration of the pilot. Said Fattah, “We both agreed that the reauthorization process was the best context in which to consider the future of the pilot”

School administrators in Philadelphia such as Arlene Ackerman, Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, attribute the success of the pilot to the fact that it is paperless. Because student eligibility is based on demographic surveys of family income rather than individual application, a higher proportion of eligible students participate in the school meal program. When students are responsible for providing the information, forms are often incomplete or are not returned.

Families with the lowest incomes and in the greatest need are often the least likely to return complete applications. In the Philadelphia pilot, this problem is averted and the children have access to meals they need to stay healthy and learn.

Philadelphia school administrators and elected officials have pledged to work with the committees who will take up the Child Nutrition Act later this year – in the  House of Representatives, the Education and Labor Committee, and in the Senate, the Agriculture Committee  – to ensure that the lessons learned in the Philadelphia pilot are reflected in the final legislation. 

We applaud Congressman Fattah’s commitment to finding a permanent and national universal paperless school lunch program.