Growing up, I had a lot of family members who worked in the Dallas Independent School District, and they shared stories firsthand with me about kids stepping into the cafeteria hungry before practice, or waiting for the school building to open the next morning just so they could get a meal.
Most schools have only a microwave or deep fryer, hardly the tools needed to feed our children real, fresh food.
We need social and emotional learning in our schools. I think we also need to get good food in the schools. We can't be feeding our kids Pop-Tarts and chocolate milk.
With 28 million children eating lunch at school every day in the United States, I believe government has an obligation to ensure parents have some peace of mind when they send their children off to school in the morning, .. Since children are particularly vulnerable to foodborne illness, schools must be vigilant in their efforts to ensure that cafeterias are not putting children at risk. These changes in law will support parents who want to work with school principals and food-service directors to ensure a safe environment.
I'm a mum and I hate the thought of any child going a whole day at school without a healthy meal.
When you start one of these programs, school lunch programs, in a country that heretofore had nothing of that kind, immediately school enrollment jumps dramatically. Girls and boys get to the classroom with the promise of a good meal once a day.
Mr. Speaker, less than 10 percent of our Nation's children walk or ride their bicycles to school, and too many schools continue to invite fast-food vendors into their cafeterias.
It's very clear that there's a lot of double standards going on. Should there be a 30mph speed limit? Of course there bloody should. And certainly with kids and school food, kids need to be nannied for sure. So give them a bloody good meal at school.
I don't understand why we have laws that prevent someone from walking a school campus and selling alcohol or drugs but somehow can't feed our children who attend those schools a healthy balanced diet, which I think is a lot worse. It's offensive and I think anyone who isn't offended by it is an idiot.
There's been a growing effort to kick soda out of the schools. And governors as different as Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and Mike Huckabee in Arkansas have worked hard to get soda and junk food out of their state schools, which is good.
I hated the Naked Chef. Fine, yes, he did good things for school food or whatever, but, you know, I don't want my chefs to be cute and adorable.
I remember everyone in my nursery school class getting a carton of milk before the day started. Only, I got mine about 20 minutes later than everyone else because it had to be kept on the radiator for a short while. I liked warm milk when I was small.
Parents have a right to expect that their efforts at home won't be undone each day in the school cafeteria or in the vending machine in the hallway. ...Parents have a right to expect that their kids will be served fresh, healthy food that meets high nutritional standards.
So you can say, 'Get Big Government out of here, and don't tell me what to eat,' but when kids are going to school, and they're being fed junk, we're pretty much telling them what to eat, and we're telling them junk is OK.
Pizza certainly has its place in school meals, but equating it with broccoli, carrots and celery seriously undermines this nation's efforts to support children's health and their ability to learn because of better school nutrition.
School is where children spend most of their time, and it is where we lay the foundation for healthy habits. That's why New Jersey is the first state to adopt a comprehensive school nutrition policy that bans candy, soda, and other junk food.
Proper school nutrition must be complemented by activities outside of the cafeteria. The decisions parents make to keep their kids healthy are critical in fighting this battle on the home front.
I am confident that we will see a growing consensus about the most effective way to transform food in America: building a real, sustainable and free school-lunch program.
While budgets are tight right now, there are schools across the country that are showing that it doesn't take a whole lot of money or resources to give our kids the nutrition they deserve. What it does take, however, is effort. What it does take is imagination. What it does take is a commitment to our children's futures.
Allowing flexibility to local school districts to set their own nutritional standards and having parents involved in the process is a win-win for the students.
Agribusinesses should never dictate the quality of school meals.
You won't believe what our kids are eating in the public schools. It's just nuts.
We can all get behind feeding the poorest kids in school, right?
It's not in the tradition: not even the schoolkids have hot lunches in Norway. They bring a couple of sandwiches from home.
There are ways we can go do a better job of educating young moms and dads about the vital role they have as the child's first teacher. I think there are ways in which we can partner with local school districts and states to do a better job to provide nutrition options at school.
