Child Nutrition Reauthorization

Over the past two years, City Harvest led over 85 organizations and hundreds of individuals in a campaign to impact the Child Nutrition Reauthorization.

On Thursday, December 2, the House of Representatives passed the 2010 Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill. The Senate passed the bill in August. Once signed into law by President Obama, the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act” will govern the School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, WIC, CACFP, and other child nutrition programs for the next 5 years.

The purpose of reauthorization is for Congress to gather input from program administrators, participants, and advocates, to update and improve federal programs that feed more than 35 million children in schools and child care centers across the country – and over 1 million children in New York City alone.

Over the past two years, City Harvest led the NYC Alliance for CNR campaign to give New Yorkers a voice in the reauthorization process. From March 2009 through December 2010, more than 85 organizations and hundreds of individual Alliance members advocated for a child nutrition bill to meet the needs of NYC: a bill that would combat child hunger and food insecurity, ensure access to nutritious foods for all children, reduce childhood obesity, and support regional farm and food economies.

This was an opportune time for New York City to influence the child nutrition bill. We have the largest child nutrition program in the country: over half a million children eat in NYC public schools every day. Almost 80% of these children receive meals free or at reduced price because of low family incomes. Because of our size and our need, NYC was poised to be a powerful voice in this national conversation around child nutrition. Also, in 2009-2010, New York members in both chambers of Congress sat on committees with jurisdiction over the bill. For the first time in nearly 40 years, a NY Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, sat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, who represents District 11 (Brooklyn, NY), sat on the House Education and Labor Committee.

NYC Alliance for CNR members spurred local government action to amplify our advocacy efforts toward reauthorization. City Council launched a local campaign unprecedented for federal legislation, working with the Alliance to voice City priorities, and inviting New Yorkers to testify at a council hearing on CNR and send letters to Congress members. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer organized a “Dear Colleague” letter from city and state elected officials to Congressional Leadership reinforcing Alliance priorities.

As we neared the close of the 111th Congress and the potential expiration of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, an intense debate erupted over a proposal to use $2.2 billion in future SNAP/Food Stamp benefits to pay for part of the $4.5 billion bill. Because over 1.75 million NYC residents – including hundreds of thousands of NYC children – rely on SNAP, City Harvest and members of the NYC Alliance for CNR could not support this change.  Along with advocates across the nation, we urged Representatives to find another way to pay for meals for children at school that did not threaten access to nutritious food for these same children at home. Mayor Bloomberg requested this same fix in a letter to Congress in September. In response, President Obama made a commitment to work with Congress to restore these funds that ultimately swayed NYC Representatives to vote last week in favor of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

The 2010 CNR bill includes provisions that will impact access to school meal and child care food programs for low income students, as well as quality of food available in schools and child care settings. Of note is a 6-cent increase to the school lunch reimbursement rate for schools that meet nutrition standards, a new “paperless option” for schools in high poverty areas to serve children meals without collecting applications, and a new authority granted to the Secretary of Agriculture to establish standards for “competitive foods” sold outside the cafeteria (e.g., in school vending machines and school stores).