National Harbor, Md. (May 11, 2010) - The School Nutrition Association (SNA) commends the Obama Administration for its continued efforts to combat childhood overweight and obesity. Today the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity unveiled its action plan, Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity within a Generation, and called for increased resources for school meals as a critical part of the solution.

“We are very excited that President and Mrs. Obama have recognized how crucial the school nutrition programs are to the health and academic success of our nation’s children, particularly as Congress prepares to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act,” said SNA President Dora Rivas, MS, RD, SNS. “The Task Force’s report recognizes the many challenges school nutrition programs face as they provide healthy, nutritious school meals to students everyday and emphasizes the need to increase funds for school meal programs as they work to build on this success” 

SNA proudly supports First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Campaign.  In February, the Association and its membership agreed to a number of key steps improve the nutritional quality of school meals and advance nutrition education for America’s children.  Several of these commitments were included as recommendations in the report.

As part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! Campaign, President Obama established the multi-agency Task Force on Childhood Obesity to develop and implement a plan that details a coordinated strategy and identifies key benchmarks.  SNA submitted comments to the Task Force in late March.

The report focuses on five key areas: early childhood, parents and caregivers, healthy school food, access to healthy and affordable food, and increasing physical activity.  Among the reports recommendations for healthy school food are:

• Increase resources for school meals, including increased reimbursement rates;
• Update Federal nutrition standards for school meals and improving the nutritional quality of USDA commodities provided to schools;
• Update competitive food standards to meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans;
• Encourage schools to update cafeteria equipment to provide healthier foods in schools;
• Encourage USDA to work with community stakeholders to develop innovative ways to encourage students to make healthier choices;
• Link school nutrition programs to local growers and farm-to-school programs;
• Encourage more schools to participate in the HealthierUS Schools Challenge; and
• Provide technical assistance to school nutrition programs to help create and provide healthy school meals.

SNA is a national, non-profit professional organization representing more than 53,000 members who provide high-quality, low-cost meals to students across the country.  The Association and its members are dedicated to feeding children safe and nutritious meals.  Founded in 1946, SNA is the only association devoted exclusively to protecting and enhancing children’s health and well being through school meals and sound nutrition education.