Make School Meals Healthier, Experts Say

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Make School Meals Healthier, Experts Say

Tue Oct  7, 5:39 PM ET

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Soggy canned vegetables and gluey white bread have no
place in school meals and ought to be replaced with fresh produce and whole
grains, experts told a Congressional hearing on Tuesday.

They championed a pilot plan under which the government paid for free fruit
and vegetable snacks in schools and called for it to be expanded.

"The Department of Agriculture has two major objectives in its mission to
provide food products to schools. One objective is to purchase products as
part of the Department's price-support and surplus-removal programs,"
Republican Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, chairman of the Committee on Education
and the Workforce, told the hearing.

"The second is to provide schools with high quality, nutritious foods so
that children have access to meals that are both healthful and appealing.
These objectives are frequently at odds," he added.

Several experts noted that the U.S. Department of Agriculture ( news -web
sites ) subsidizes and distributes products like cheese and meat, which it
advises Americans to eat in small amounts, but does less for the fresh
vegetables that can protect against heart disease, cancer, obesity and other
ills. 

"We tell WIC (the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program for
single-parent families) recipients to eat more fruits and vegetables, but
the WIC food packages don't include these very products," said Thomas
Stenzel, president of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association.

"We tell schools to serve more fruits and vegetables, and then supply them
with heavily processed foods and surplus commodities."

Joanne Slavin, a professor of nutrition at the University of Minnesota,
speaking on behalf of the Wheat Foods Council, said American children and
adults alike strongly prefer white bread and need to be encouraged to switch
to whole grains. 

"Schools will need pilot programs, similar to the USDA's pilot fruit and
vegetable program, along with educational, classroom and marketing resources
to help students increase their intake of whole grain foods," Slavin said.

In the 2002 Farm Bill, Congress gave the go-ahead to a pilot program to
provide free fresh fruits and vegetables as snacks to children in 107
schools in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico and Ohio.

USDA Undersecretary Eric Bost said his agency had teamed up with the
Department of Defense ( news -web sites ) to supply fresh produce to schools
and spent $50 million on produce last year.

Other experts called for children to have the option of choosing soy milk
instead of dairy with their school meals.

<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=594&e=1&u=/nm/20031007/hl_n
m/health_lunches_dc>

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