Rural Republicans see school meals differently
July 23, 2014 | 09:36 PM
The differences between Republican senators from the Plains and the rest of the Senate Agriculture Committee over school food became apparent today at a hearing on reauthorization of the school meals program.
The reauthorization is not scheduled until 2015, but the School Nutrition Association, which represents the school food service directors and the companies that make school foods, has called on Congress to roll back some of the provisions in healthier meal rules the Agriculture Department has promulgated under the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.
SNA says children are reacting negatively to some of the foods that have been introduced and are throwing away fruits and vegetables, and the group has called for more flexibility and an end to the requirement that children must be served a half-cup or fruits or vegetables with each meal.
SNA has also backed a provision in the House version of the 2015 Agriculture appropriations bill to require USDA to grant a waiver to any school that said it had lost money in its meals program for six months.
But the real battle seems to be over reauthorization, since the Agriculture appropriations bill does not seem to be moving in either the House or the Senate, and in the eyes of the Agriculture Department the 2014-2015 school year began on July 1.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., started off the hearing by saying that “reversing course is not an option because the health of our children is directly linked to the health of our economy, national security, and long-term sustainability as a nation.”
Stabenow also said that on her visits to Michigan schools she has been impressed “to see elementary school students enjoying broccoli and pineapple from salad bars, and students learning about where their food comes from through farm to school garden efforts.”
Betti Wiggins
Her statements were backed up by testimony from Betti Wiggins, the executive director of the Office of Food Services in the Detroit Public Schools.
Wiggins said Detroit welcomed the higher nutritional standards in the 2010 act and immediately started implementing the new meals. She praised Tyson Foods and other suppliers for creating whole-grain breading, lean beef and grilled products. She also suggested that the committee should hear from the manufacturers “who have worked very hard at formulating whole-grain products.”
Three other witnesses testified that the healthier school meal rules are working, while Julia Bauscher, who has just been elected SNA president, said schools need more flexibility in order to keep students, especially middle-class children, buying school lunches.
Julia Bauscher
Bauscher is the director of school and community nutrition services in the Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Ky.
“Virtually all of the students leaving the lunch program are those who can afford to bring their lunch from home or purchase it elsewhere,” she said, adding that the number of students paying full price for meals has declined 15 percent nationwide in the past year.
Bauscher said this gives the children who get free or reduced price meals a stigma, and also causes financial problems for the schools. She asked the committee to allow SNA members “to be part of the on-going discussion and deliberation,” but she did not bring up any of the specifics of SNA’s legislative agenda.
Academic studies financed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released Monday said that white high school students and rural elementary and middle students have continued to complain more about the meals than socio-economically disadvantaged students in urban and suburban schools.
When it came time for the senators to ask questions, Democrats asked about issues such as whether the length of the lunch period is causing students to not finish their meals and whether more money for equipment would make it easier to update school menus.
But the questions from Republican Sens. Mike Johanns of Nebraska, John Hoeven of North Dakota, John Thune of South Dakota and John Boozman of Arkansas signaled that they were getting a different message from their white, rural students.
Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb.
Johanns said that when he visits schools, students frequently criticize the school lunch program, and he suggested to Wiggins that there should be flexibility because places are so different.
“There is nothing like Detroit in my state,” Johanns said.
But Wiggins declined to agree, saying that the children of the working poor bring junk food to school, but under community eligibility provisions that allow free lunches she can “embrace” them with healthier meals.
Wiggins also said that Indian reservations in rural states are like “small Detroits” that need good nutrition.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.
Hoeven said he is opposed to the requirement that began July 1 that 100 percent of breads and pasta be whole-grain rich, which means that they are composed of at least 51 percent whole grains. He pressed all the panelists to promise that they would personally eat only whole-grain enriched pasta and bread for the next year.
Bauscher said that problems finding acceptable whole-grain tortillas in the Southwest, grits and biscuits in the South and bagels in the Northeast indicates the need for flexibility “for the culturally significant grain item.”
Thune also said that 200 students at the Pierre Indian Learning Center have sent him a letter that the healthier meal rules prevent them from having traditional foods served once a month.
But Wiggins noted that Detroit has many ethnic groups besides African-Americans, and manages to serve healthy ethnic food.
“Black people love collard greens and fat,” Wiggins said, but on Soul Day the Detroit schools serve black-eyed peas, collard greens and sweet potatoes that are within the healthy meals guidelines. These foods are “not like my mama’s,” Wiggins said, but give the students “an awareness” that these foods can be eaten in a healthy way.
Wiggins told Hoeven that although she is “a card-carrying member of SNA” and was sitting hear its president, she would agree to support flexibility only “if it’s reasonable.”
Scott Clements
Scott Clements, the director of the Office of Healthy Foods and Child Nutrition at the Mississippi Education Department, said he would be happy for more flexibility in the school meals program.
Clements also testified that Mississippi schools found writing new menus and buying more expensive foods to be difficult, but noted that the state has addressed those issues through a task force on meal planning and forming of a purchasing cooperative.
Katie Wilson, executive director of the National Food Service Management Institute at the University of Mississippi, said, “From a scientific and nutritional standpoint we need to go with whole grains.”
Katie Wilson
Wilson also testified that even though some school food service directors have objected to a new requirements that school food service professionals have certified training, she considers the requirement is vital because some states have no standards for school food service managers.
She noted that all nursing homes in the country, even in remote rural areas, are required to have a registered dietician oversee their food programs.
“There is a way,” said Wilson, who was a school food service director in Wisconsin for 23 years.
Phil Muir
Phil Muir, the president and CEO of Muir Copper Canyon Farms, a food service produce distributor in Salt Lake City, said schools told him two years ago they could not find whole-grain flour, but that he was able to find it, and has been delivering it to them along with fruits and vegetables.
Muir testified that fruits and vegetables have to look attractive so that kids will not throw them away, but said he is able to get fresh produce in good shape to remote locations such as Pinedale, Wyo.
“It takes a ride on three separate trucks to get produce there, but we get it there every week,” Muir said.
After Hoeven left the hearing, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said she wished he would be there to hear her statement, which amounted to a sermon against feeding kids what they want
“Of course kids like non-whole grains, they like sugar even more,” Gillibrand said. “It is what they like, their taste buds love it. We have to be the adults in the room. We have to teach them how to eat well for their whole lives.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.
She noted that she has served her children only steamed vegetables since they were babies. “My kids prefer healthy foods,” she said. “If kids are not getting healthy foods at home, of course they prefer burgers and fries.”
Serving children what they want does them a disservice, she said, because fat kids are made fun of and have low self-esteem.
“It is easy to have flexibility, but let’s not serve refined foods at lunch,” Gillibrand concluded, praising the witnesses for having “gone outside the box” in implementing the healthier food rules.
The school meals program needs more money, Gillibrand said, noting that she had proposed a 35-cent increase in the federal reimbursement for school meals when the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed, rather than the 6-cent increase that was included.
“Everyone would prefer steamed green beans over canned green beans. It is cheaper to serve a chicken nugget, but roasted chicken is a more healthy,” she said.
After all the witnesses said they would support an increase in the funding, Gillibrand said, “Let’s focus on how we do that."
Written testimony
▪ Betti Wiggins, Detroit Public Schools
▪ Scott Clements, Mississippi Department of Education
▪ Julia Bauscher, School Nutrition Association
▪ Katie Wilson, National Food Service Management Institute
▪ Phil Muir, Muir Copper Canyon Farms
