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Proposals to end childhood obesity in the united states
Healthy, hunger-free kids act like pros
Childhood obesity united states proposals
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Thank you for contacting me about the reauthorization of the federal child nutrition programs. I appreciate knowing your thoughts on the issue.
The Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) takes places every five years that authorizes and funds the National School Lunch Program and other federal nutrition programs. As part of the last reauthorization in 2010, the Obama administration and first Lady Michelle Obama pushed Congress to mandate new food standards in an effort to fight childhood obesity by drastically limiting calories, reduce sodium, increase fruits and vegetables. On the surface the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) was a misguided attempt by the Federal government to expand its reach in the lives of average Americans.
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The bill was introduced as an effort to reduce the ever growing obesity rates. The increasing trend was also observed at the national level, throughout the United States. The rate was especially highest in pre-school children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rates of obesity in children have tripled in the last 30 years. These high rates have equivalently increased obesity related ailments such as; high risks of high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes, (CDC, 2014).
Women, Infants and Children (WIC) was established “ To safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.” In this paper one will weigh the pros and cons, review the information given and come to an overall opinion of the program.
According to the “Hunger and Poverty Fact Sheet” on Feeding America’s website, in 2014 there were over 48 million Americans living in food insecure households, which included 32 million adults and 15 million children. For over 35 years, Feeding America continues to be in the forefront in solving this crisis by providing food to people in need through a nationwide network of food banks. In the late 1960s, Van Hengel established the nation’s first food bank and years later established the first national organization of food banks, Second Harvest. Second Harvest was later called America’s Second Harvest the Nation’s Food Bank Network and in 2008, the national organization changed its name to Feeding America.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is a federally funded program administered by the Food and Nutrition Service under the United States Department of Agriculture. Each state receives a grant to pay for WIC foods, administrative costs, nutrition education, and breastfeeding promotion and support. In 2009 WIC served approximately 9.3 million people per month. WIC services are available for nutritionally at risk, income qualified pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children up to age five. The WIC program provides nutrient-dense supplemental foods, nutrition education, and health care referrals to those who qualify. The mission of WIC is “To safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age five who at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.” (USDA)
It has been a long time since the first official program has begun in 1939. It has helped millions of people. However it does have several flaws in the system. The system is changing to be more electronic and decreasing fraud. Even though from the report from the Governmental Accountability Organization shows the program to be ineffective, there are people out there that truly have been helped by the program. The work requirements seem like an easy fix, it would weed a lot of frauds out of the system. When the government is just handing out these benefits with simple requirements people are going to take advantage of it and in turn become dependent on it. The problems with program are fixable but from the information on the Food and Nutrition government website basically says they do not want to put the work in to solve some of these issues raised in this essay.
Sugarman, Stephen D. and Nirit Sandman. “Fighting Childhood Obesity through Performance-Based Regulation of the Food Industry.” 2007. Web. 5, September 2011.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (S.N.A.P.) is a federal program founded in 1964, with the purpose of reducing hunger and malnutrition in the United States. Low-income families and individuals that qualify for this federal assistance can buy food every month in the form of an electronic benefit transfer (EBT). These EBT cards are similar to debit card; cardholder’s recipient can use their cash benefits or buy eligible food at most stores and retailers. Over the years S.N.A.P expenses have dramatically increase. S.N.A.P needs reform due to the never-ending of the amount of waste, fraud, and abuse.
The United States is known as the wealthiest country in the world. But, there are many people that can't afford to buy food for their families, many are also homeless. “While hunger affects people of all ages, it's particularly devastating for children even short-term episodes of hunger can cause lasting damage."(“Child Nutrition Programs") Child hunger in the United States is caused by poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, and food shortage; however there are many solutions to this problem like FRAC strategies, food banks, summer feeding programs, and backpack feeding programs.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years,” meaning that America’s children need to start eating healthier, including healthier school lunches. The National School Lunch Act is a fairly recent addition to American society. For, as the world waged war a second time, the United States began to worry about the strength and health of the country’s soldiers. However, in the beginning, selling excess agricultural goods was more important than building a healthy, well-balanced meal for students. Unfortunately, many children coming from poorer families could not afford well-balanced school lunches, so in order to compensate, the School Lunch Program changed its focus to help these students. This program, however, decreased schools’ lunch budgets, and schools had a hard time keeping up with the amount of free meals they had to provide, so they came up with some extra ways to increase revenue. However, in a small town in Massachusetts, one chef makes a difference in the health of the school lunch students eat each day, and proves that hiring a trained chef to cook real, healthy meals can increase profit. Unfortunately, that is not the case in most schools across the nation. The quality of health of the food being served in school lunches is extremely poor and was allowed to decline even more with a new set of rule changes. However, there are some improvements currently being made to increase the quality of health of the food being served to students, including teaching them all about food and its nutritional information, both good and bad. In order for students to eat healthier lunches at school, the USDA needs to implement healthier ...
...ne wants to experience the pain and frustration of obesity, and surely we wish to protect our children from starting out life unhealthy and overweight. As consumers but more importantly as citizens, we must be informed about the HFCS and obesity for our children’s sake, and US agricultural and nutritional policy must reflect our concerns.
While the Healthy Kids Act has a good objective, it has many flaws. Kids may eat healthy at school, but the Act has no effect on how kids eat at home. Also, even though students are required to have healthy food on their trays at school, this doesn’t mean that they will eat it all. Much of a school’s money is wasted on food that is just going to end up in the garbage.
The Web. 23 Jan. 2014. United States Department of Agriculture. The "School Meals" Child Nutrition Programs -. USDA, 23 Dec. 2013.
Do you remember your favorite “School Lunch”? I do, I essentially had two favorites; pizza and hamburgers with fries. Think back, wasn’t there at least one school lunch that the lunch ladies made that everyone was so excited to eat. Kids that habitually brought their super hero lunch box with thermos would leave it at home and be in line for pizza or burgers and fries. We could also go back for “seconds”, it was the best meal of the week including what was served at home. The federal government has been involved in the NSLP (National School Lunch Program) since 1946 with the implementation of the National School Lunch Act. These initial programs developed the commodity distribution program for schools, institutions, needy households, summer
In conclusion the benefits and drawbacks to a federally sponsored USDA School Breakfast Program are wide and vary greatly in their differences. If School District X feels that the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks, then they should participate in the program. However, if they feel that the drawbacks outweigh the benefits, they should not participate. The sole reason for participation in the program should be based on the individual needs of the district and those of the children concerned.
Obesity is a global governmental concern and issue starting from childhood all the way up to adulthood. It’s been such a governmental concern, with all of the healthcare costs and self-harming, that the governments have stepped up in order to help fix the problems with childhood obesity in schools by creating programs. These programs help children learn how to eat and stay active during school and how to do the same thing outside of school. This is a great result of helping to prevent childhood obesity and will definitely lead into the child’s adulthood. The government even looked towards fixing its food-stamp program and what foods the food-stamp recipients can purchase (Terrell, 2007). Which, this is not a bad idea to begin with because it helps prevent people from purchasing all unhealthy foods. Making sure that they get what they need although they do not receive what they want. Some people would argue that it is not right for the government to step in on certain aspects of a person’s life, but the government is concerned about all of the consequences of not helping prevent obesity in children and it would lead to less life expectancy, more health issues, and more governmental