KISSIMMEE, Fla., April 22, 2010 - USDA Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Deputy Under Secretary Janey Thornton today highlighted the Obama Administration's priorities for improving school meals and the health of children across the nation. Thornton was in Kissimmee, Fla. speaking to local and state nutrition officials at a roundtable discussion at Central Avenue Elementary School and emphasized the importance of renewing the Child Nutrition Act and advocated for a strong reauthorization bill to reduce hunger and improve the health and nutrition of our nation's children.

"USDA and the Obama Administration are committed to rapid passage of a strong reauthorization bill to improve the health and nutrition of our nation's children," said Thornton. "This year we have an unprecedented opportunity to make our programs stronger and more accessible to millions of children in need. We will continue to seek ways to improve the quality of our school meal programs, increase participation rates and ensure schools have the resources they need. We must do this not only for our children, but for the future of our country."

Improving the Child Nutrition Act is the legislative centerpiece of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation. The campaign has four primary tenets: helping parents make healthy family choices; serving healthier food in schools; improving access to healthy, affordable food; and increasing physical activity of kids. Already, the administration has announced its plans to improve school meals, a financing initiative to reduce food deserts, new research tools that detail local food environments and health outcomes, including grocery store access and disease and obesity prevalence, in addition to a broad range of public/private partnerships to solve America's childhood obesity epidemic. Learn more by visiting www.LetsMove.gov.

Every five years, Congress considers improvements to the Child Nutrition Act. The Obama Administration has proposed a historic investment of an additional $10 billion over ten years starting in 2011 that will allow for the improvement of the quality of the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, including training for school food service workers, upgraded kitchen equipment, and additional funding for meal reimbursements for schools that are enhancing nutrition and quality. Additionally, this investment will allow additional fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat and fat free dairy products to be served in our school cafeterias and an additional one million students to be served the healthy diets in school.

Today, Thornton outlined USDA's priorities for the Child Nutrition Act which include:

• Improve nutrition standards. Establishing improved nutrition standards for school meals based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and taking additional steps to ensure compliance with these standards;
• Increase access to meal programs. Providing tools to increase participation in the school nutrition programs, streamline applications, and eliminate gap periods;
• Increase education about healthy eating. Providing parents and students better information about school nutrition and meal quality;
• Establish standards for competitive foods sold in schools. Creating national baseline standards for all foods sold in elementary, middle, and high schools to ensure they contribute effectively to a healthy diet;
• Serve more healthy food. Promoting increased consumption of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and low- and fat-free dairy products and providing additional financial support in the form of reimbursement rate increases for schools that enhance nutrition and quality;
• Increase physical activity. Strengthening school wellness policy implementation and promoting physical activity in schools;
• Train people who prepare school meals. Ensuring that child nutrition professionals have the skills to serve top-quality meals that are both healthful and appealing to their student customers;
• Provide schools with better equipment. Helping schools with financial assistance to purchase equipment needed to produce healthy, attractive meals.
• Enhance food safety. Expanding the current requirements of the food safety program to all facilities where food is stored, prepared and served.

USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) oversees the administration of 15 nutrition assistance programs, including the child nutrition programs, that touch the lives of one in four Americans over the course of a year. These programs work in concert to form a national safety net against hunger. Visit www.fns.usda.gov for information about FNS and nutrition assistance program.

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